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The classic sandal is an open toe sandal. This is the style of sandal worn by ancient peoples--Greeks, Romans, and others. Biblical peoples, of course, also wore sandals--hence the modern term "Jesus boots". And the term sandal is derived from the Roman term "sandalia".
Monks often wore sandals in the middle ages and some orders still do. In recent times, open toe sandals were not commonly worn in America and Western Europe. They were worn in Mexico and other Latin American countries, but generally viewed as symbolizing poverty or low income. Open toe sandals have experienced a revival in recent years. Open toe sandals began to appear in California, I believe during the 1950s. They were seized upon by the Hippies in 1960s. American East coast boys resisted them, but beginning in the 1990s with the appearance of the sport sandal, open toe sandals began to make inroads even with sneakers, that classic symbol of American boyhood. By the end of the decade, American boys for the first time, outside of California, were commonly wearing sandals. At first they commonly wore them with socks, but by the end of the decade this was becoming less common. In England boys mostly wore closed toe sandals, especially for school
or play. A few schools adopted open-toe sandals for summer wear. The open-tow style begame more common at New Zealand schools for wear during the
summer term without knee socks. I'm not sure when schools began to use open-toed sandals which they referred to as "Roman" sandals.
Sandals seem to be a type of footwear in modern times that appeared after the turn-of-the 20th century. We noote mostly closed-toe sandals at first, although tghis is complicated by the similaritb of strap shoes and closed-toe sandals. Thefirst open-toe sandals e have found are worn by two boys from an unidentified Austrian nobel family in 1908.
The classic sandal is an open toe sandal. This is the style of sandal worn by ancient peoples--Greeks, Romans, and others. Biblical peoples, of course, also wore sandals--hence the modern term "Jesus boots". And the term sandal is derived from the Roman term "sandalia".
Monks often wore sandals in the middle ages and some orders still do.
In recent times, open toe sandals were not commonly worn in America and Western Europe. They were worn in Mexico and other Latin American countries, but generally viewed as symbolizing poverty or low income. Open toe sandals have experienced a revival in recent years. Open toe sandals began to appear in California, I believe during the 1950s. They were seized upon by the Hippies in 1960s. American East coast boys resisted them, but beginning in the 1990s with the appearance of the sport sandal, open toe sandals began to make inroads even with sneakers, that classic symbol of American boyhood. By the end of the decade, American boys for the first time, outside of California, were commonly wearing sandals. At first they commonly wore them with socks, but by the end of the decade this was becoming less common. In England boys mostly wore closed toe sandals, especially for school or play. A few schools adopted open-toe sandals for summer wear. The open-toe style begame more common at New Zealand schools for wear during the summer term without knee socks. I'm not sure when schools began to use open-toed sandals which they referred to as "Roman" sandals.
There are two types of open toe sandal. The first type includes styles that look rater like closed-toe sandals, but with the toe cut open like many types of women's shoes. We rarely see such sandals in America and England, but have seen a few examples in Germany. We have seen more examples in central Europe and Russia. We note children in a unidentified Hungarian family wearing them.
A reader writes, "Looking at the boys shoes, I think the open toes were an economy, To make the shoes last longer a parent has cut out the toe to accommodate the growing foot. This was done a lot in England with sandals. A frined of mine reminded me of this the other day. She used to get hand downs from her elder brother. She remembers that the sandals had often had the toes cut out before she got them." This is possible, but my guess is that few British boys would want to wear sandals like that. The Hungarian boys may have had the toes cut out of their closed-toe sandals. We do not know ebough abour Hungarian fashions to assess this. We do note many Soviets boys wearing sandals with open toes. And we see them commonly worn in Soviet times.
A reader writes, "It makes sense that some parents might cut off the toe area so the children would wear sandals longer as their feet grew. But, I remember that there was a time when "peep toe" styles with an opening in the toe area were fashionable. I have seen many examples of sandals with these "peep toes", and I'm sure they weren't deliberately cut to make them bigger."
The second type of open-toe sandals were what is often called Roman sandals. These are sandals that look less like shoes with a wide open toe area and various numbers and arrangemets of straps. We see them in Europe, but not very commonly until well after World War II. They began to be popular in Germany in the 1980s. A few British boys wore them rather than the closed-toe sandals. They began to become more popular in America during the 1990s, marked as sport sandals. They were very common in New Zealand schools as part of a summer uniform.
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