Fetch My Pipe And Slippers

With British-made slippers enjoying an upturn in sales, Matthew Dennison discovers why now’s the perfect time to slip into something more comfortable

- Matthew Dennison

IN 1829, the editor of The Edinburgh Literary Journal offered his readers an encomium on the subject of slippers. ‘Without slippers, winter would be merely a season of greatcoats and sore throats;—without slippers summer would be nothing but a few months of perspiration and white trousers… To winter, slippers impart all its fireside comfort,—to summer all its refreshing coolness.’ On the evidence of a recent upturn in slipper sales reported by leading British manufacturers, it’s a view that continues to win adherents.

Happily, both for the sartorially discerning and those with an interest in the well-being of Britain’s traditional shoemakers, the slippers currently enjoying a particular vogue are made in this country, from velvet, with quilted-satin linings and leather soles and heels, cut and lasted by hand using traditional techniques. And at Crockett & Jones and Oliver Brown, there is even a consensus among customers about the colour of the moment: navy blue, most often without monogramming or embroidered decoration.

At Oliver Brown, Kristian Robson attributes the resurgence in popularity of this highly traditional piece of men’s footwear to the continuing impact of Downton Abbey, with its focus on luxurious formal clothing, but it’s also the case that velvet slippers have lately made their way on to international catwalks, showcased by designers such as Prada. As Jason Simmonds of Devon-based shoemakers Herring tells me, the slippers in question—laceless, pull-on, tab-fronted designs—are more accurately described as ‘house shoes’ ‘as they have the same lasted shape, toe and heel shapers that a welted shoe would have, but with a much thinner sole and luxurious velvet uppers’.