Figure 1.--Here we see two Mississippi brothers wearing matching outfits in 1935.Just came across two kids with open toe sandals from Mississippi in 1935. Growing up in America during the 1940s and 50s, I never saw boys wearing sadals like this. The boy on the right is wearing a style that is very popular today. Click on the image for a fuller discussion of the boys' outfits.

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". 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.

Created: 2:23 AM 7/27/2005
Last updated: 2:23 AM 7/27/2005