Figure 1.--Children commonly go barefoot in New Zealamd, although it is now not as common as it once was. Here is a scene after school in down town Auckland. The boy is barefoot. Girls alsion commonly go barefoot, although here the girl, probably the boy's sister, is wearing her school uniform. Notice her rubber-soled leather shoes.

Clothing styles in New Zealand were very similar to those in Britain, This only began to change after World War II when American syles began to have some influence. This was especially true for casual clothes. School styles continued to be essentially British styles. The one major difference is footwear. From an early point in the settlemena of New Zealand, children commonly went barefoot. We are not entirely sure why that was. The climate had to be a fsctor. And consumer goods before local industries developed much have been very expensive. Even after cattle wwre introduced, we suspect the quality of footwear was poorer than in England and the price was higher. This alomg with the climate may explain why going barefoot was much more common in New Zealand than Britain. We assume that footwear manufacturing by the early 20th century became comparable to Britain, although New Zealand is of course a much smaller market which would mean that companies did not enjoy economies of scale. Hopefully New Zealand readers can tell us more about this. We note boys wearing inexpensuive leather shoes with rubber soles in the late-20th century. They were almost always black shoes. British school sandals were never very popular in New Zealand, although many schools had Roman sandals as part of the summer uniform. Boys do not appear to have worn sandals much outside of school. Sneakers becane popular in the 1970s as was common in most countries.

Influences

Clothing styles until the mid-20th century in New Zealand were very similar to those in Britain, This only began to change after World War II when American syles began to have some influence. This was especially true for casual clothes. School styles continued to be essentially British styles. The one major difference is footwear. British boys did not commonly go barefoot, New Zealand boys did. And we do not commonly see British-style school sandals in New Zealand. We do now see American styled sneakers.

Chronology

Footwear Types

From an early point in the settlemena of New Zealand, children commonly went barefoot. We are not entirely sure why that was. The climate had to be a fsctor. And consumer goods before local industries developed much have been very expensive. Even after cattle wwre introduced, we suspect the quality of footwear was poorer than in England and the price was higher. This alomg with the climate may explain why going barefoot was much more common in New Zealand than Britain. We assume that footwear manufacturing by the early-20th century became comparable to Britain, although New Zealand is of course a much smaller market which would mean that companies did not enjoy economies of scale. Hopefully New Zealand readers can tell us more about this. We note boys wearing inexpensuive leather shoes with rubber soles in the late-20th century. They were almost always black shoes. British closed-toe school sandals were never very popular in New Zealand, although many schools had Roman sandals as part of the summer uniform. Boys do not appear, however, to have worn sandals much outside of school. We don not see sneakers much in the early-20th century. They began to appear in the 1960s, presumably part iof the American influence. Thgey became popular in the 1970s as was common in most countries. Flip flops were popular.

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Created: 1:54 AM 5/13/2011
Last updated: 10:02 PM 6/23/2013