Flip-flops are back! by Maria Azzurra Volpe

One of the biggest trends of this summer is going to be the return of the flip-flops.

You may remember those usually flat, toe-thong shoes that all the stars from Paris Hilton to Britney Spears used to wear, in the first couple of years of the new millennium.

by Maria Azzurra Volpe

They are now back in fashion and are already amongst the most sold products of this year.

The first thong sandals in history appeared in the ancient Egypt around 1500 years ago, they were made with papyrus and palm leave and did not exactly look as fashionable as they do now. Different cultures had their different kinds of flip-flops, made with a variety of material from leaves to leather to wood. The flip-flops as we know them, were created in Japan, they were called zōri, and used to be made out of rice straws wood and leather.

The zōri were then brought to the west by the American soldiers after WWII and since then they started their evolutionary process.

There are various kinds of flip-flop shoes, from the more elegant ones made of a lacquered material, possibly with a hint of a hill, the plastic ones which children usually love to wear at the beach to the simple havaianas.

Havaianas, the most common flip flops brand, started its business back in 1962, and has been growing ever since, in fact recently they produce over 150 million pair of shoes each year!

But what is it that makes people love those shoes? Iwona Roszuk, thirty-one-year-old from Krakow, who works at a shoes shop in North London says: “it probably has to do with the fact that they are easy to wear with anything, you don’t have to pick up clothes to match them, you can wear them with everything, jeans, shorts, dresses and they are fine. I mean they don’t look particularly good, but they also don’t look bad, they’re ok”

“usually when people buy them, they don’t even try them on, they just get the right size and buy it”

According to Iwona, flip-flops are mostly bought by women of young age, “girls mostly buy it, teenagers, older people don’t usually go for them.”

“some people wear flip-flops everywhere even to go out, my personal opinion I think they are only for the beach, or pool, they hurt, and you need to put effort not to lose them when you walk.”

Flip-flops are considered to be comfy and somehow fashionable, and most of all are considered to be feminine, but what do women think about that?

Marta Wieczorek, mother of two from North London, describes them as an easy option for the whole family: “I don’t think they’re only for women, they are handy and cheap and they are perfect for when you go to the beach or to take a shower in a public place, all my family wear them. I wear them all the time at home and sometimes to go out but only the leather ones look good, the rest I use it only for slippers”