Just occasionally in fashion something completely new comes along which rather than being a short lived fad remains with us for a lifetime or more.
The mini skirt arrived on the scene quite suddenly in the nineteen sixties and still to this day is as popular as ever. Sometimes it is an innovative bit of practical design work like the inspirational one just one hundred and fifty years ago almost to the day, when the first major denim jeans designer in the United States thought to toughen the stitching with metal studs.
These studs were sewn into the possible weak points like the edges of any pockets and around the fly exactly as they still are today on this manufacturer and many others jeans.
Metal studs over the years have been used on many other items of clothing mostly with no practical purpose but merely because they look good particularly on things like leather jackets.
One practical example has been the use of studs on motorbike leathers and boots. The theory is that the studs will help prevent the leather tearing open less quickly in an accident when the leather comes into contact with the tarmac.
Bikers’ boots with studs are not just worn by bikers as they have become fashion items in their own right and now there is a range of other types of shoes as well as boots with studs sold under the name of studded heels.
Studs have now been used on all types of clothing, hats and now boots and shoes to add a sexy addition to all types of wear.
Over the past fifty years the choices in all boot and shoe designer-wear has exploded in the range of choices available to all. Before then the choices for men and women was nothing like as diverse as it is now and a visit to the shoe shop those days could be a boring experience.
In the sixties something called the Chelsea boot became a fashion for men and walking down the Kings Road which as it happens is in the London Borough of Chelsea, practically every other male walking past the hippy shops of the day could be seen wearing this type of boot or shoe.
Today it is almost impossible to see two people wearing the same design and make of shoe since there are so many thousands to choose from.
A recent survey discovered that there is more than fifty times the number of shoe designers in production today than there were fifty years ago.
Of course many of them are made by the same production companies mostly in countries where labour is comparatively cheap but the designs are very different even if the leather used is from the same source.
Take a look at all the studded shoes and boots and in particular the huge range of individual designers studded heels and maybe match them with some figure hugging jeans also adorned with those iconic American West denims of yesteryear.