Editing Slip-on shoe (section)

===History===
[[File:British boys school shoes.jpg|thumb|left|A pair of slip-on shoes from [[Matalan]]]]

A bespoke shoe company based in London that was established in 1847{{Disputed inline|Who was first?|date=October 2013}} developed the first loafer as a country house shoe for the landed gentry and the royal family. The "Wildsmith Loafer" made by Raymond Lewis Wildsmith of [[Wildsmith Shoes]], was designed for [[King George VI]] as a casual house shoe.<ref>[http://www.wildsmith.com/history Wildsmith: The History of our Footwear] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019195708/http://www.wildsmith.com/history |date=2013-10-19 }} Wildsmith: The History of our Footwear</ref> The shoe has subsequently been marketed and sold by other London shoe firms and dubbed "the Harrow".<ref name=":2">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/03/garden/the-politicization-of-tasseled-loafers.html |title=The Politicization of Tasseled Loafers |first=Neil |last=Lewis|date=November 3, 1993 |work=[[The New York Times]]
}}</ref>
[[File:Rote_Loafer_Papst_Benedikt.jpg|thumb|[[Papal shoes|Red loafers of Pope]] Benedict XVI]]
[[File:Produksjon av Aurlandssko - no-nb digifoto 20150325 00012 NB MIT FNR 02758 B.jpg|thumb|Manufacturing of ''Aurlandsko'' in [[Aurland]] around 1950. {{credit|[[National Library of Norway]]}} ]]
Shoemaker Nils Gregoriusson Tveranger (1874–1953) in [[Aurland]], Norway, introduced his first design around 1908.<ref name="September 7, 2012"/><ref name="Aurlandskoen » Historikk">{{cite web |url=http://www.aurlandskoen.no/historikk/ |title=Aurlandskoen » Historikk |publisher=Aurlandskoen.no |access-date=2013-06-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110129060330/http://www.aurlandskoen.no/historikk/ |archive-date=2011-01-29 }}</ref> Tveranger obtained [[Industrial design right|protection]] for the design.<ref name=":1">''Aurland.'' Aurland: Sogelaget. 1997. {{ISBN|8299226120}}. </ref> N. Tveranger obtained a diploma at the Bergen exhibition in 1910 for his "Aurland shoe".<ref>''Beretning om Bergensutstillingen 1910.'' Bergen, 1917.</ref> The first Aurland shoes were also made with laces and a decorative upper side similar to the [[brogue shoe]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://shoesdrill.com/| title=Guide For Man| access-date = 29 August 2018}}</ref> Colors were initially natural until approximately 1960 when they were also painted black.<ref>''Kulturhistorisk vegbok, Sogn og Fjordane.'' Naustdal: Sogn og Fjordane forl. 1991. {{ISBN|8291082006}}. </ref> At age 13 Tveranger went to North America where he learned the craft of shoemaking and returned to Norway at age 20. Around 1930, Tveranger introduced a new design called the "Aurland moccasin", later renamed the "Aurland shoe". This design resembles the moccasins used by the Iroquois as well as the design of moccasin-like shoes traditionally worn by locals in Aurland.<ref name="Aurlandskoen » Historikk"/> These traditional shoes resembled slippers and were useful outdoors in fine weather.<ref name=":1" /> In 1936 the local shoe handcraft in Aurland was described as a "very old industry" and shoes were sold in large numbers to foreign visitors.<ref>''Sogn i tekst og billeder.'' Oslo: Kjenn ditt land. 1936. </ref> A 1953 catalog listed about 10 shoe factories in the small village of Aurland.<ref>''Det Norske næringsliv''. Bergen: Det norske næringslivs forl. 1953. </ref> When exported to the USA the Aurland shoes were called "Norwegian Moccasins".<ref>''Norsk husflid: i går, i dag, i morgen.'' Skien: Norges husflid- og husindustrilag. 1950. </ref> The Norwegians began exporting them to the rest of Europe, where they were taken up by visiting Americans,<ref>{{cite book |last=Flusser |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Flusser
    |title=Dressing the Man |year=2002 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers
    |location=New York |isbn=0-06-019144-9 |page=202
}}</ref> and championed by the American [[Esquire Magazine|''Esquire'']] magazine. Some photographs included with the ''Esquire'' feature were of Norwegian farmers in a [[cattle loafing]] area.<ref>{{cite book |last=Patrick |first=Bethanne 
    |title=An Uncommon History of Common Things |url=https://archive.org/details/uncommonhistoryo0000patr |url-access=registration |year=2009 |publisher=National Geographic
    |isbn=978-1-4262-0420-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/uncommonhistoryo0000patr/page/174 174]
}}</ref>  The Spaulding family in [[New Hampshire]] started making shoes based on this design in the early 1930s,{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} naming them ''loafers'', a general term for slip-on shoes which is still in use in America. In 1934, [[G.H. Bass & Co.|G.H. Bass]] (a bootmaker in [[Wilton, Maine]]) started making loafers under the name ''Weejuns'' (sounding like Nor''wegians'').<ref>Flusser (2002). p. 203</ref> The distinctive addition was a strip of leather across the saddle with a diamond cut-out. Initially only worn in the summer at home, the shoe grew in popularity in America to become a significant part of men's casual shoe wardrobe; in Europe, the style has never reached the same degree of ubiquity.

[[File:Brown JK loafers with 5cm heel (20200202020202).jpg|thumb|A traditional cordovan ''penny loafer'']]

The term ''penny loafer'' has uncertain beginnings. One explanation is when American [[University-preparatory school|prep school]] students in the 1950s, wishing to make a fashion statement, took to inserting a [[Penny#In popular culture|penny]] into the diamond-shaped slit on their Weejuns. Either way, the name ''penny loafer'' came to be applied to this style of slip-on and has since stuck.

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).<ref name="Flusser196">Flusser (2002). p. 196</ref>  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.

At the start of the twenty-first century, a revival of penny loafers, whose popularity had peaked during the mid- to late 1960s and again during the early 1980s to early 1990s,<ref name=":2" /> occurred, with the shoe appearing in a more rugged version, closer to the original concept, as either [[moccasin]]s, or [[espadrilles]], both of these styles being very low or flat without heels. This resurgence was most noticeable at college campuses across America.

Another variation on the basic style is the tassel loafer, which emerged in the 1950s. Again, though casual, their gradual acceptance among the American East Coast prep school culture as equivalent to [[brogue shoe|brogues]] (wingtips),<ref name="Flusser196"/> has led to them being worn there with suits, where they gained an association with business and legal classes.