Nostalgic post... London Fog shoes from the 80s

K.M.

Purely for nostalgic reasons...

These shoes were extremely popular when I was a teenager in Brazil in the late 1980s. I absolutely loved them and was thrilled when I finally got a pair. They were, of course, paired with tapered, baggy jeans.

Were they popular elsewhere in the world?

As I look at them now, part of me wonders why we liked them so much. And the other part (the nostalgic) of course wishes I had a pair.

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5 years ago

Dressing

18 replies

Latest reply was from Jeanie

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Those look a bit like the old Clark's Wallabees. Which have made something of a comeback, if you want a pair!

I'll bet they are comfortable.

We didn't wear shoes like this in the 80s in Toronto. Adults did, though. My friends were more into pointy toed New Wave or chunky Punk styles, usually black -- at least in the early 80s. I also wore kitten heeled pumps sometimes (often vintage). As the decade wore on, I wore Docs with monk straps in cool weather, and higher heels (I think?) for dressy. Anything to balance the shoulder pads...

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5 years ago

RobinF

Veteran

I remember that style being popular! Although I didn’t remember that London Fog made them. I always thought of London Fog as raincoats. I didn’t own any myself but agree that the style seems to be making a small comeback. They look really comfy.

5 years ago

Joy

Veteran

I think I remember them called desert boots. They looked very comfortable but I never had a pair. They will probably make a comeback.

5 years ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Joy, the desert boots had a higher side. But you're right -- it was similar and made by the same companies.

Younger people did wear the desert style for a while. Not in the 80s so much as 70s here, I think....

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5 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I remember them too. Unisex. Fun to see them again.

5 years ago

cjh

(website)

Veteran

My daughters, grade school ages, wore white Keds with untied laces or without the laces in the late 80s with their baggy tapered jeans and Hammer pants, neon T-shirt’s, and home made (by me) girl-style mullet hair cuts. Drove me nuts that they wouldn’t tie their shoes!

The suede shoes shown by Suz were popular with the preppy boys in my high school c. 1969-72 and we called them chukka boots. I’ve seen them and tried them on recently, but they feel too masculine on me.

5 years ago

K.M.

Veteran

Suz, I'm kind of excited that they are still available, and if you hadn't told me the name I wouldn't have known where to find! My guess is that the Brazilian London Fog brand (which perhaps is not the same as the international one) might have copied the Clarks...?

And the "desert shoes" were also popular, but I always liked the thicker-soled ones better. Late 80s and early 90s for me were all about chunky shoes. Suz, you are right, they were meant to balance the baggy tops and shoulder pads...

In 1991 I got a variation on this shoe, a bit more rigid and a bit dressier, meant as a unisex shoe as Angie mentioned. I loved it. It was a splurge from a really good Brazilian brand and I was so happy and wore it with pants and longer shorts. One day a boy from my high school mocked me for shoes which he said looked like they belonged in a male construction workers' feet. I suppose the tides of fashion might have been changing then. Still I paid him no heed, and still wore and loved my chunky shoes for a long time.

5 years ago

Like the Season

Active Member

The London Fog shoes triggered a nostalgic memory for me. Here's the SAS version (still available), which my mother wore to work every day through the '80s. They will forever be "mom shoes" to me. (Love you, Mom!)

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5 years ago

K.M.

Veteran

Like the Season, I had never seen them in leather, only suede!

5 years ago

K.M.

Veteran

PS. I remember the smell of the soles... eventually it wore away. I loved that smell.

5 years ago

LaPed

Veteran

Like Suz, I know them as Clarks Wallabees -- different from the Clarks Desert Boot, which has a plain toe rather than the stitched moccasin-style toe. I think the Desert Boots are only made in an ankle height, not this lower cut. The Wallabee comes in both, I think. Both have that distinctive crepe sole -- it may be the rubber that gives them their distinctive smell.

5 years ago

JAileen

Veteran

I had Clarks Wallabees in 1971. I went to Europe with my parents and I wore them everywhere. I’m not sure if I even took a second pair of shoes. They felt like buttah.

ETA: They cost under $25.

5 years ago

DonnaF

Veteran

I owned Clark’s Wallabees in the early ‘70s. The crepe soles got slippery in the rain, but otherwise I remember them to be fairly comfortable.

5 years ago

Style Fan

Veteran

I remember those. I didn't have a pair but I have owned desert boots. I wore pumps in the 80s to work but I do not remember what I wore in my other life. Probably because I didn't have much time off work.

5 years ago

cjh

(website)

Veteran

Speaking of construction boots. I wore them in college, high tops, yellow leather with brown leather trim and shoestrings. They went well with my high waisted, wider legged jeans, some with carpenter styling, and skinny ribbed turtlenecks. Hmmm, and I thought chukka boots were too mannish. Well, thanks for the memory fun!

5 years ago

Anonymous

I agree the style looks familiar in my past too but also agree that I never knew London Fog made anything other than raincoats because that is the only thing I ever saw in stores of that brand.
Those shoes were comfy

5 years ago

rachylou

Veteran

Gosh! Also never heard of London Fog shoes. I do remember Wallabees, but they were not a trend in my area in the 80s. They were a shoe for grown men. That’s so interesting!

5 years ago

Jeanie

Veteran

I remember these shoes. I think we called them Earth Shoes but I don't know why. I didn't ever have a pair. I didn't know London Fog even made shoes!

5 years ago

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