Belgian Boys Clothes Garments: Footwear Types


Figure 1.--Here we see a Belgian boy weaing a kind of relaxed formal outfit in the 1950s. We think it is a button-on outfit. He wears white socks and strap shoes. The boy looks to be about 5 years old.

We have very little information on 19th century Belgian footwear because of our limited archive. We think high-top shoes became common in the late-19th centuty. We know much more about the 20th century. We see many boys commonly earing high-top shoes through the 1920s, but to a lesser exent the 1930s. We see more boys wearing lace-up low-cut oxfords in the 1920s and by the 1930s they were the dominant footwear of Belgian boys. Many children wore strap shoes into the 1950s. Both boys and gurls wore them, but the older children wearing them were mostly girls. There were different styles. School-age boys also wore them. We do not see sneakers before World War II. And we have not seen as many boys wearing sneakers as was the case in France even by the 1950s. Straps shoes and sandals until after World War II were often worn as American boys might wear sneakers. Only by the 1970s did sneakers or running shoes become increasing popular as was generally the case throughout Europe.








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Created: 11:23 AM 6/24/2012
Last updated: 11:23 AM 6/24/2012