Slip-on shoe

History

The "Wildsmith Loafer" made by Raymond Lewis Wildsmith of Wildsmith Shoes was designed for King George VI as a casual house shoe. This was the first loafer. The shoe has subsequently been marketed and sold by other London shoe firms and dubbed "the Harrow".

Shoemaker Nils Gregoriusson Tveranger (1874–1953) in Aurland Municipality, Norway, introduced his first design around 1908. Tveranger obtained protection for the design. N. Tveranger obtained a diploma at the Bergen exhibition in 1910 for his "Aurland shoe". The first Aurland shoes were also made with laces and a decorative upper side similar to the brogue shoe. Colors were initially natural until approximately 1960, when they were also painted black. At age 13, Tveranger went to North America, where he learned the craft of shoemaking and returned to Norway at age 20. Around 1930, Tveranger introduced a new design called the "Aurland moccasin", later renamed the "Aurland shoe". This design resembles the moccasins worn by the Iroquois as well as the moccasin-like shoes traditionally worn by locals in Aurland. These traditional shoes resembled slippers and were useful outdoors in fine weather. In 1936, the local shoe handcraft in Aurland was described as a "very old industry", and shoes were sold in large numbers to foreign visitors. A 1953 catalog listed about 10 shoe factories in the small village of Aurland. When exported to the USA, the Aurland shoes were called "Norwegian Moccasins". The Norwegians began exporting them to the rest of Europe, where they were taken up by visiting Americans, and championed by the American Esquire magazine. Some photographs included in the Esquire feature were of Norwegian farmers in a cattle-loafing area. The Spaulding family in New Hampshire started making shoes based on this design in the early 1930s,^{[citation needed]} naming them loafers, a general term for slip-on shoes which is still in use in America. In 1934, G.H. Bass shoemaker of Wilton, Maine started making loafers under the name Weejuns (sounding like Norwegians). These loafers had a distinctive addition: a strip of leather across the saddle with a diamond cutout. Initially worn only in the summer at home, the shoe grew in popularity in America, becoming a significant part of men's casual shoe wardrobes; in Europe, the style has never reached the same level of ubiquity.

The term penny loafer has uncertain origins. One explanation is that, in the 1950s, American prep school students, wishing to make a fashion statement, took to inserting a penny into the diamond-shaped slit on their Weejuns. Either way, the name penny loafer came to be applied to this slip-on style and has stuck.

In the mid-1950s, further continental influences brought a more elegant image to light: lower-cut slip-ons, which moved from purely casual use to pairing with suits in the 1960s (but still only in America). In 1966, Italian designer Gucci made the further step of adding a metal strap across the front in the shape of a horse's snaffle bit. These Gucci loafers (now a general term for shoes of this style from any manufacturer) also spread across the Atlantic. They were worn by 1970s business people, becoming almost a Wall Street uniform and reaching widespread use by the 1980s.

At the start of the twenty-first century, a revival of penny loafers, whose popularity had peaked during the mid- to late 1960s and again during the early 1980s to early 1990s, occurred, with the shoe appearing in a more rugged version, closer to the original concept, as either moccasins, or espadrilles, both of these styles being very low or flat without heels. This resurgence was most noticeable at college campuses across America.

Another variation on the basic style is the tassel loafer, which emerged in the 1950s. Again, though casual, their gradual acceptance among the American East Coast prep school culture as equivalent to brogues (wingtips), has led to them being worn there with suits, where they gained an association with business and legal classes.

Types of loafer

Use

In the United States and some European countries, such as Italy, the loafer is widely used as a casual, informal shoe for work and leisure, though lace-ups are still preferred for more formal situations. The general popularity of brown over black extends to loafers, sometimes using exotic leathers such as suede and cordovan. Since the early 1980s, socks have been optional while wearing loafers.

Though originally men's shoes, some styles of loafers, such as casual tassel and penny loafers, are also worn by women. Women's loafers tend to have shorter toes and are worn with a variety of outfits, from shorts, jeans, slacks, and capris to dresses and skirts.^{[citation needed]}