Everyone loves booties this season, don’t they.  The flat boot is a mark of hot style.

Take this sleek black number from Tapeet (on sale for $437.50 down from $625).

Tapeet flat booties

Very nice, no?

And as proof that this is yet another fashion that has come in and out of style for a long long time, take a gander at these damask “gaiter boots” from Regency England (courtesy of Vintage Textile).

vintage booties

Couldn’t you almost see these being sold today?  The leather cap-toe, the patterned damask fabric.  The lace up the inside.  They even have a history that fits with the way fashion trends work now.  The name and style comes from spats (or gaiters), which were worn first by military men to protect their boots from getting all muddy.  But when the style was adopted into gaiter boots, they were made daintier and more refined looking and lost the functional possibility of tromping through the mud a la Elizabeth Bennet.

And people still do the same thing today.  Think about the ballet flat.  It’s inspired by a ballet shoe, but  when was the last time you actually saw someone walking down the street in these?

ballet slipper

Likewise with the oxford (and by extension, this season’s hot shoe-booties) and its relation to jazz dance shoes.  No one wanders around like this on the street.

jazz shoes

So, hats (or should I say spats?) off to repurposing and recycling great fashion trends from history.