Trendlet: Jack Rogers sandals
It's the special details - red bottoms, swooshes, golden Ts - that make shoes iconic. This summer's fancy flat boasts whipstitched leather and a prominently placed rondel.
It's the special details - red bottoms, swooshes, golden Ts - that make shoes iconic. This summer's fancy flat boasts whipstitched leather and a prominently placed rondel.
The trendlet
More Jack Rogers sandals are accompanying ankle-length T-shirt dresses, pencil midi-skirts, and sheer top combos, as well as palazzo, midriff pantsuits. The leather thong can be a sturdy walking shoe, and thanks to metallic fabrics and wooden heels, it's as appropriate for work as it is for Center City Sips.
Where's it come from?
Like many of today's favorite womenswear accessories - Lilly Pulitzer dresses, the Hermés scarf, and aviator sunglasses - first lady Jacqueline Kennedy had a hand in this footwear's fashionable making.
In 1961, she spotted a similarly stitched sandal with circular cutouts while on a trip to Capri. The first lady had to have a pair, so when she got back home, she asked her Palm Beach cobbler to make the shoe in a variety of colors. His employee Jack Rogers eventually designed them. Kennedy's influential friends and family fell in love with the shoe and a company was born.
That Navajo-style flat was like the Sperry Top Sider of the ladies-who-lunch warm weather wardrobe for the next 50 years. Jack Rogers' were popular enough that women who socialized in East Hampton circles knew they should have a pair, but it wasn't necessarily on the Richter scale of the typical Jane.
New York firm Global Research Capital bought the Jack Rogers company from a Florida firm in 2008 with the intention of building a lifestyle brand around the classic shoe.
New designs like wedges and driving shoes expanded the collection, and in 2010, Nordstrom started carrying the brand. The Jack Rogers flagship store opened on Manhattan's Madison Avenue in 2011, followed by stores in Bal Harbour, Fla., and Nantucket. As preppy styles mesh with festival fierce looks, the shoe becomes more popular on city streets.
Who's wearing them?
Over the years, celebs Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Selma Blair have worn them around Los Angeles, where the Jack Rogers thong is a perennial. They are a fave among young socialites, their yoga-mom sisters, and the aunts and grandmothers who love them.
Would Elizabeth wear them?
A gold metallic Navajo wedge would be fun to wear with a black jumpsuit. Perfect transition into fall, don'tcha think?
Should you wear them?
Every woman should keep a pair of dressier flats in her closet. Jack Rogers fill that bill.
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