All I can say about this subject, is that while I was a young teenager wearing Doc Martens, my mother was wearing Birkenstocks (and even long before that). She did buy me a matching suede pair in hopes that I would take to them like she did, but at that age I can't say that I ever fully committed to them in my wardrobe. At the time it was more like, "thanks mom but I am only going to wear these around the house ok?"(I will say they were always comfortable as hell though and that hasn't changed). I think it's just a matter of the way the generation before us wore their Birkenstocks in the nineties, that didn't make them as appealing to the eye as they are looking today. You know the fanny pack and tank top wearing kind. In my opinion I wouldn’t say the sandal itself was ever ugly I just bulky and different.
Like most items in fashion, after they are temporarily forgotten... they eventually have their updated look in the spotlight cycle again. Lately, the Birkenstock sandal has been on the style radar, only this time they managed to make a re-interpreted entrance into the world of high fashion. The updated version has been featured in fashion editorials, on style editors, and style setters lists all over the place, but this time around styled with a much more chic approach. I recently read this article in
Vogue about the reappearance of the Birkenstock, and found it interesting that so many people have different opinions about the original hippie sandal.
As a 31 year old woman, I can say that I now fully embrace the easy style and simple comfort of the Birkenstock and am happy to see it’s new found presence on the chic side of fashion!
These editorial images of model Miranda Kerr sporting the "newly revised look" of the Arizona Birkenstock sandals, are proof that they can be chic when styled so.
Is it time for me to bring the
Dr. Marten boot back into my wardrobe again too? An updated version of course that is.
xo~syd
images via:
visual optimism
