I couldn't write yesterday... I sat in front of the screen. My page and my mind were blank. All I could think about were the little espadrilles I wore every summer. My mother purchased them by the dozens in a rainbow of colors. They were inexpensive and comfortable, and of course very stylish. This triggered a little trip down memory shoe lane. I recalled the T-strapped sandals and the rubber toed Keds of my childhood and the sneakers and clogs and first grown up shoes, a pair of brown Joan and Davids I wore to a friend's Bat Mitzvah.
It's funny which shoes I could recall. I am sure there are many more that have escaped me. I am sure I would gasp in horror at some of them. Like everyone else, I too had succumbed to the Fashion Faux Pas that was the 1980s. The shoes I have posted here influenced my feet, somehow, during my youth.
I remember my T-strap shoes fondly. I had these in all three colors. I wore red ones year round. The blue ones were my school shoes and the white I wore in the summertime. Never with socks. I also had little white sandals but I couldn't find a picture. They were simple and white and leather and not all doctored up and junked up like most of today's sandals are.
Mary Janes were my party shoes until I outgrew them. I was never without a pair of black ones. Sometimes I had white ones that I wore with little white dresses in the summer time. The white ones were never worn with socks!
As mentioned earlier, I had espadrilles in every color imaginable. Some were like the top model and some tied around my ankle. I loved the ones that tied.These espadrilles will always remind me of my summers in France.
I also had a pair of Docksiders. Mom liked to dress me as a preppy tomboy when I wasn't wearing a pretty dress, ribbons in my hair and sandals. I wore my Docksiders with jeans. Levis of course. Mom had to search high and low for them every time. But she was determined. The older I got the easier it was to find them. Eventually my Levis and Docksiders would come with me to my summer camp in the Adirondacks.
As I entered my preteen years the Docksiders no longer interested me. I started to have a say in what I wanted my feet to wear. My feet wold soon resemble the feet of all my friends.
My little sandals and white T straps soon would become a piece of my personal history. These Dr. Scholl's sandals were all the rage as I entered those pre-pubescent years. All the girls wore them in the summertime. We wore them on the concrete streets of Manhattan and we wore them in the Adirondack mountains. They were said to be exercise sandals. They were supposed to be good for our legs, our calf muscles specifically. Like my T-strap sandals of my childhood I had these in white, red and denim. They looked especially nice with our denim cut off shorts (we all had nice legs as kids) and T-shirts. I still recall running in them and my foot accidentally sliding out, the middle of my arch landing squarely on the hard wooden heel. Ouch!
Dr. Scholl's sandals are not practical year round. My love for them paved way for my I HAVE TO HAVE Mia clogs. Oh boy did I have to have these. I had them in navy as pictured above and in brown leather with a braid over the top. I thought I was hot stuff in my clogs that were banned in our hardwood floor Manhattan apartment!
Followed by the clog was the Frye boot. Another must have. Another loud cloppity cloppity shoe that was banned from the apartment!
Shortly after the Frye boot phase, maybe it even overlapped a bit, the Dockside reappeared in my shoe repertoire, alongside these LL Bean Blucher moccasins. Yes, I had the Camp Moc as well. As well as these cute little things.
The 1980s changed the athletic shoe market as we knew it. My Keds were no longer good enough. These were the coveted sneaker. I begged and begged and begged for a pair. My mother didn't see the appeal. After all, she had grown up on Keds and they were perfectly fine. Eventually I donned my first pair of Nikes. They looked just like this shoe pictured below. This was a sneaker like none other. These shoes added a spring to your step. They were like walking on air. I truly ran faster. These were amazing. Soon, every New York schoolgirl would have a pair of white sneakers with a red swoosh on the sides.
At this point the Preppy Handbook was in every hand of every New York City schoolgirl. And prep and non-prep started following this Plaid Bible.
Michael Jackson's popularity rose again in the 1980s. He made loafers popular... how perfect for the preppy crowd!
I still have my pair of navy duck shoes in my closet in Newport.
By the time I was 12 or 13, I think in 7th grade, my taste in shoes started to grow up. I got my first pair of heels, a pair of brown Joan & David's. I coveted them and I was so proud to own them. Another shoe phase that took away the breath of every Preppy New York City school girl was the Jacques Cohen espadrille. How we coveted these! Did you have a pair?
I eventually outgrew my Nikes. The next coveted sneakers were the ones pictured above and below that I had in many colors.
My Tretorns came to college with me. Along with my LL Bean camp mocs and my blue LL Bean duck boots.
In college I was introduced to and fell in love with all things Pappagallo. Sadly the company no longer exists. I wish, like Lilly Pulitzer, someone would come along and resurrect and bring this wonderful company back to us!
(The loafer above is actually a Belgian Loafer -- completely out of my college budget -- but is the closest image I could locate that resembled my Pappagallos)
Are there any shoes from your youth that you remember fondly? Are there any that you remember that I might have missed?
It's funny which shoes I could recall. I am sure there are many more that have escaped me. I am sure I would gasp in horror at some of them. Like everyone else, I too had succumbed to the Fashion Faux Pas that was the 1980s. The shoes I have posted here influenced my feet, somehow, during my youth.
I remember my T-strap shoes fondly. I had these in all three colors. I wore red ones year round. The blue ones were my school shoes and the white I wore in the summertime. Never with socks. I also had little white sandals but I couldn't find a picture. They were simple and white and leather and not all doctored up and junked up like most of today's sandals are.
Mary Janes were my party shoes until I outgrew them. I was never without a pair of black ones. Sometimes I had white ones that I wore with little white dresses in the summer time. The white ones were never worn with socks!
As mentioned earlier, I had espadrilles in every color imaginable. Some were like the top model and some tied around my ankle. I loved the ones that tied.These espadrilles will always remind me of my summers in France.
As I entered my preteen years the Docksiders no longer interested me. I started to have a say in what I wanted my feet to wear. My feet wold soon resemble the feet of all my friends.
My little sandals and white T straps soon would become a piece of my personal history. These Dr. Scholl's sandals were all the rage as I entered those pre-pubescent years. All the girls wore them in the summertime. We wore them on the concrete streets of Manhattan and we wore them in the Adirondack mountains. They were said to be exercise sandals. They were supposed to be good for our legs, our calf muscles specifically. Like my T-strap sandals of my childhood I had these in white, red and denim. They looked especially nice with our denim cut off shorts (we all had nice legs as kids) and T-shirts. I still recall running in them and my foot accidentally sliding out, the middle of my arch landing squarely on the hard wooden heel. Ouch!
Dr. Scholl's sandals are not practical year round. My love for them paved way for my I HAVE TO HAVE Mia clogs. Oh boy did I have to have these. I had them in navy as pictured above and in brown leather with a braid over the top. I thought I was hot stuff in my clogs that were banned in our hardwood floor Manhattan apartment!
Followed by the clog was the Frye boot. Another must have. Another loud cloppity cloppity shoe that was banned from the apartment!
At this point the Preppy Handbook was in every hand of every New York City schoolgirl. And prep and non-prep started following this Plaid Bible.
I still have my pair of navy duck shoes in my closet in Newport.
In college I was introduced to and fell in love with all things Pappagallo. Sadly the company no longer exists. I wish, like Lilly Pulitzer, someone would come along and resurrect and bring this wonderful company back to us!
Are there any shoes from your youth that you remember fondly? Are there any that you remember that I might have missed?