ESPADRILLES

All fashion is cyclical.

When we got up from dinner last week, my friend was towering over me. I looked down at her feet and she was wearing ESPADRILLES! I said, "Oh, WOW! I haven't seen those for years. I used to have a pair when I was young!"

She said she'd had them a long time and that she keeps everything because everything will come back in style. I said that espadrilles probably come back in style every ten years because I'd seen them in movies and magazines from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and later. CLICK HERE to see the history of espadrilles (also known as alpargatas).

The Vogue Magazine cover from 1941 shows wearing espadrilles with such casual sophistication! Hollywood stars such as Lauren Bacall, Rita Hayworth, Grace Kelly, and the divine Audrey Hepburn were photographed wearing espadrilles in the 1940s and 1950s. See below the modern version in which the heel is higher and sexier.

In the 1960s I fell in love with everything by Yves Saint Laurent and he popularized espadrilles in his summer collections. When copies became available I just had to have a pair! I remember dancing in them at my birthday party in 1972! The only YSL item I could afford to buy was his perfume. Unfortunately, it did not smell good on me and my mother used it. That beautiful, empty flacon is still on her dresser. The first cologne I bought for Gerald was L'Homme by YSL which he still wears.

ESPADRILLES from the Yves Saint Laurent collection.