Slip-on shoe

Bass (a bootmaker in Wilton, Maine) started making loafers under the name Weejuns (sounding like Norwegians).

One explanation is when American prep school students in the 1950s, wishing to make a fashion statement, took to inserting a penny into the diamond-shaped slit on their Weejuns.

[5] In the mid-1950s, further continental influences brought a more elegant image to light, lower-cut slip-ons, which moved from purely casual use to being paired with suits in the 1960s (but still only in America).

[21] In 1966, Italian designer Gucci made the further step of adding a metal strap across the front in the shape of a horse's snaffle bit.

These Gucci loafers (now a general term referring to shoes of this style by any manufacturer) also spread over the Atlantic and were worn by 1970s businessmen, becoming almost a Wall Street uniform, reaching widespread use by the 1980s.

Again, though casual, their gradual acceptance among the American East Coast prep school culture as equivalent to brogues (wingtips),[21] has led to them being worn there with suits, where they gained an association with business and legal classes.

In the United States and some European countries, such as Italy, the loafer enjoys general use as a casual and informal shoe worn for work and leisure, though lace-ups are still preferred for more formal situations.

Women's loafers tend to have shorter toes and are worn with a variety of outfits from shorts, jeans, slacks, and capris to dresses and skirts.

[citation needed] In an evolution entirely different from the loafer, Chelsea boots were invented by J. Sparkes Hall for Queen Victoria in 1836.

Rare even in Britain, its country of origin, it is still the only style of slip-on worn with a suit in some of the highly conservative working environments in the City of London.

[29] With such a background, their use mimics that of Oxfords, so they are worn in brown with broguing as a country shoe, or in plainer, black styles with suits.