‘The Slipper is taking to the Streets’

This season bespoke monogrammed Gentlemen Slippers are taking to the streets. According to Vogue, the leading fashion magazine in the UK, monogrammed slippers are the best accompaniment to your Autumn / Winter look.
So it is not surprising that Hand and Lock were the first call when Tom Ford decided to create the ultimate velvet with gold embroidery slippers for this season’s collection.

Initially inspired by Churchill who started this trend, these slippers made a come back in 2008 when dapper gentleman were seen wearing monogrammed slippers outdoors. According to Hilary Freeman, managing director of Edward Green & Co, in our article ‘Trendy Slippers are going out’ this trend starting ‘slowly moving west to Europe, then Russia and onwards. We are even starting to see interest from Japan’

Now it seems that not only has it become a global trend for men but woman are now turning to the Slipper as a fashionable alternative to the ballet pumps. With Hand & Lock services personalising your slippers has never been easier.

Hand and Lock have been customizing clothes, shoes and interiors since 1767 so as you can imagine we have a large archive of customizing ideas to choose from, see our online showcase for more details.

Email us at enquiries@handembroidery.com to talk to us about personalising your slippers today.

Flat mates

At Last, an antidote to vertiginous heels. What could be more appealing than a glamorous gentleman’s slipper, asks Emma Elwick-Bates

Thinking “flat” for day and night is fast becoming the norm, but among ubiquitous ballet pumps, Chelsea boots and brogues, its hard not to yearn for something, well, a little more glamorous.
Stepping forward as the chic alternative is the gentleman’s slipper or horse shoe. A nod to the more leisurely era of the gentleman’s lounge, the slipper is now taking to the street. Winston Churchill, may have favoured monogrammed velvet for padding around Chartwell, but today, why not slip on the leopard-print Jimmy Choo or dandy grosgrain-ribboned John Lobb (the ideal companion to your Miu Miu kick-flare)?

“I love them,” enthuses Natalia Vodianova  (left) who, while shopping in Harrods, got distracted in the men’s department by a pair of mocha velvet Tom Ford “beauties”. ”I jumped when I saw them; they’re so perfect with delicate clothes. I like to wear them with floral dresses, skinny jeans, loose knitwear, shorts…the list is long”, she explains. Enamoured, she has since added several pairs from Church’s ladies line to her collection.

Designers are equally enthralled by the slipper. Christian Louboutin has flipped his into a madcap future, adding hardcore spikes and zebra and tiger prints to his Rollerball shoe. First created for the 3.1 Phillip Lim menswear show in 2009, the demand from women for these twisted classics became so high,” it would have been rude, or even worse, sexist, to keep them only for men”, Louboutin says playfully. If you favour something a little more formal to play off against your love-worn denims, tootle off to the outfitters on St James’s and Jermyn Street.

It’s pretty difficult to escape their bygone charm. This season, Tabitha Simmons is introducing us to Cybil, her take on the gentlewoman slip-on in glossy black pony skin. “I wanted a slipper in the collection; it’s an easy style that you can wear with anything, day or night.” Simmons likes to don hers with a pair of wide silk cropped Prada pyjama trousers, a soft Jersey vest and a shrunken McQueen tailored jacket.
It’s worth remembering that Cinderella’s slippers were treacherous creatures made of glass; bespoke monogrammed velvet is a much more appealing notion.

(Vogue October 2010)