A moccasin in a Weston store in Paris, January 6, 2023 (AFP / Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
Nerdy, right shoes? Not anymore. In search of a new elegance, men who grew up in sneakers put on moccasins, whether they are more fashionable or classic but worn in an offbeat way.
“There is a craze for the moccasin and we were out of stock in September. It’s a shoe that works all year round, with all looks, functional and versatile”, testifies to AFP Graziella Dubief , head of shoe purchasing at Galeries Lafayette in Paris.
French shoe designer Pierre Hardy (d) at a gala evening at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on September 24, 2021 (AFP/Archives/STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)
Pierre Hardy, shoe designer at Hermès and for his own brand, also notes “a noticeable increase” in demand for the two houses, “since this season and in purchases for the summer”.
After the confinements, “there was a weariness of the cozy at all costs. We have permission to go out and we want more elegant, more chic things”, he explains to AFP.
In London, the situation is the same.
“There are fewer and fewer sneakers on the catwalks” and “we are clearly seeing a shift from fashionable sneakers to more formal shoes” among customers, comments Thom Scherdel, buyer for the Browns store.
“We have reached an escalation of sneakers”, notes Serge Carreira, lecturer at Sciences Po, quoting the couturier Paul Poiret: “Any excess in terms of fashion is a sign of the end”.
– “Adult” shoe –
Olivier Saillard, fashion historian and artistic director of the Weston brand in Paris, January 6, 2023 (AFP / Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
“With each mode, there is a boomerang effect”, underlines with AFP Olivier Saillard, historian of fashion and artistic director of JM Weston, French manufacturer of luxury moccasins. The sneakers, “which were of all situations, of all ages, put in the shade shoes which gave base to the man”.
Thirty-something star designer Jacquemus wore black loafers, as did his male models, at a show in December, despite his high-profile sneaker collaboration with Nike.
In front of his shoe dressing room in Montmartre, Romain Costa, a 32-year-old architect, is spoiled for choice: black moccasins with thick soles, funky and colorful in leather or suede, with tassels…
With his loose jeans and his black sweater with architectural volumes, he puts on a tricolor pair before getting on his bike.
He associates the sneakers with moments from his teenage years when he was skateboarding and rarely wears them to “break up a very chic outfit”.
“I like having adult shoes. In my job, it’s reassuring,” he says, adding that they “age better” than sneakers.
For Olivier Saillard, young people who buy Westons are also looking for “value”: the house is one of the few to continue to produce everything in France, in its factory in Limoges, which undertakes to restore them for life.
– “Dandy stuck” –
He introduced at Weston a “more rock” triple sole moccasin or a 4/4 model of “workwear” inspiration. But it is the classic moccasin, dating from 1946 and baptized “180”, from the number of grips to achieve it, which sells best. In black.
Loafers in a Weston store in Paris, January 6, 2023 (AFP / Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
“You can be fashionable with a classic moccasin, just wear it with slightly wider pants, jeans, overalls,” he says.
Another trick to increase the fashion quotient: socks that “have nothing to do”, white with black or big and textured loafers… Or jogging for the more daring.
Despite everything, opinions remain mixed, with some finding that this shoe still carries a conservative image.
Delighted with the return of the shoe of his adolescence which evokes for him “hype”, “new wave”, even the rebellion symbolized by the Beatles or Michael Jackson, Pierre Hardy also concedes that it is not the sexiest shoe.
“There are never moccasins at a Hermès show”, where he has worked for more than 30 years alongside stylist Véronique Nichanian for the silhouette of an “attractive” man.
At one point, “it was really the BCBG, right-wing, reactionary shoe”, which unconsciously refers to the image of the “stuck dandy”, unlike the basketball which “carries a bodily message: a guy who moves, who does sport, who is not afraid to wear white in winter”.
© 2023 AFP
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