Back to Basics — Again and Again

by William A. Rossi

COPYRIGHT 1998 Fairchild Publications Inc.

Shoe designers are a seemingly bottomless well of creative ingenuity. It is estimated that in the United States and Europe alone, approximately 200,000 "new" footwear fashions are introduced each year — a million every five years. While perhaps fewer than 20,000 ever go into actual production annually, it's still a torrent of artistry that seems to have no limits. But, in fact, it does.

Few people realize that although there is an enormous amount of footwear introduced every season, all of these designs actually stem from one of seven basic footwear styles. They are the pump, boot, oxford, sandal, clog, mule and moccasin.

One might be quick to claim that other styles should be added, but they'd only prove to be adaptations of one of the seven aforementioned basics.

For example, athletic footwear is a spinoff from the oxford. A slingback is a version of the pump. The loafer is a clone of the moccasin. And so on.

There are two interesting things about the basic styles.

First, not one of these seven styles was was originally designed by or for a woman. All of these basics started out as men's styles and later evolved into women's versions. Second, the "newest" of the basics is the oxford, introduced some 350 years ago. Not a single new basic shoe style has been introduced in nearly four centuries. Not one, despite all the creative energies of the designers.

At this point, it is important to distinguish between a style and a fashion.

A style is something basic. The word is from the Latin "stylus," a pen-like instrument used to draw an outline or form. A fashion is a treatment or adaptation of a style.

A basic pump, for instance, can have an unlimited number of looks, each using different combinations of materials, silhouettes, designs, colors, heel shapes and heights, solings and ornamentations, etc. However, the shoe remains a pump.

To sum up: A style is basic and forever. A fashion is temporary and fleeting.

Thus, you can have millions of fashions with only seven basic shoe styles. It's like the basic numbers zero to nine. Only 10 numbers, but their combinations are infinite. Let's briefly trace the origin of those seven basic shoe styles.

The moccasin. The oldest of all footwear. One unearthed "fossil" moccasin has been carbon-dated 14,000 years, used by prehistoric man as a simple protective foot covering. A piece of crudely tanned leather wrapped around the foot, held on by thongs or lacing. The original "custom-fitted" shoe. It probably originated with Mongol tribesmen who migrated across the Bering Strait, later evolving into the American Indian. Our word "moccasin" is from the Indian "moccasinah," meaning a foot covering.

The sandal. From the Babylonian "sandalon" and the Roman or Latin "sanis," meaning a board. That was the original sandal some 7,000 years ago — a slab of firm leather sole attached to the foot with thongs.

The boot. It dates back some 6,000 years. Its origin is uncertain, but probably from the ancient Mongols. It started as a simple, moc-like lowcut with a separate legging for warmth. When shoe and legging were joined as a single unit &mdashl presto! The boot.

The early boots of Europe had flared tops and resembled a bucket. So the French called it "butt" for bucket, and it later evolved into "boute." When the Normans crossed the Channel in 1066, the English adopted the style and called it a "boot."

The clog. This basic is several thousands of years old, and was originally a piece of soft wood carved out inside to protect the foot. Also adopted as a "fashion." The word "clog" is from old English, meaning a clump of wood.

The mule. From the ancient Sumerian word "mulu," an indoor shoe or scuff. The original slipper. Many centuries later an elevated heel was placed under the back and the mule became a popular evening fashion. The flat-heel mule is still commonly used as an indoor slipper.

The pump. In the Elizabethan era, a thin slipon shoe was worn by carriage footmen called "pumps" because they pumped the carriage pedals.

The gentry adopted the style, adding elevated heels, expensive fabric uppers and ornamentation, but retaining the name "pump."

The oxford. The newest of the basic shoe styles, the oxford was introduced in 1640 when the early laced lowcuts were adopted by students at Oxford. Thomas Jefferson was called "a foppish follower of Parisian fads" by his peers when he was the first in America to switch from buckle shoes to laced oxfords.

From these few styles have come a ceaseless torrent of variations. Fashion is constantly repeating itself by giving fresh looks to old ideas.These looks may seem new to new generations of wearers. Consider geometry. There are only a limited number of basic shapes, yet look what the art world has been able to create with these forms.

However, when it comes to shoes, designers they have left one vacuum: designing shoes that fit and function properly. They have yet to match art with science, fashion with comfort. Only a handful of designers has ever taken as much as a single lesson in basic foot anatomy or the elements of foot and shoe biomechanics to enable the foot and shoe to live together in peace and harmony.

The shoe is married to a foot, and vice versa. To outside observers it may appear to be an ideal marriage. But if, in private, the shoe is frequently abusive to the foot, it's a marriage posing with a false front.

The shoe designers should learn how to make a happy, compatible marriage with its partner, the foot.