Penny loafers (original) (raw)

Penny loafers are low leather step-in shoes whose the top resembles a moccasin, but it has a broad flat heel. They first appeared in about the mid 1930's. The men's fashion and life style magazine Esquire photographed dairy farmers in Norway wearing slip on shoes around the cattle loafing area (where dairy cows gather to await milking). American lumber and leather interests owned by the Spaulding family in New Hampshire started making loafers based on these photographs in about 1932 or 3 - naming them loafers (they were also called ponies by some - often women would slip a foot out of one shoe and rest their toes on the counter (back) thus appeared to be standing as a pony often will with one leg resting on the very tip of its hoof). In 1934 Bass (a bootmaker in Wilton Maine) started making loafers and called them Weejuns (meant to sound like Norwegen. These had a strap accross the upper part of the vamp that was shaped like a pair of lips, (said to Mrs. Bass kissing each shoe on its way out the door) the minor mouth opening soon was used to hold an ornamentation - perhaps a penny and thus penny loafers became a style. They have no shoelaces or buckles. Penny loafers are formal leather shoes. Penny loafers often held a dime instead of a penny. If a girl's date got out of line she could call home on a pay phone which then accepted dimes during most of the fifties and sixties.

Penny loafers are worn by both sexes, though more likely by men. (Women also have many different styles of penny loafers)

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