Clogs

The platform shoe usually gets the 1970s footwear spotlight, but there was another chunky shoe everywhere in the decade, and it came from almost the opposite direction. Where platforms were about glamour, height, and the dance floor, clogs were about nature, comfort, and a simple, handmade look.

The 1970s clog took its inspiration mostly from Scandinavia, especially Sweden, where clogs with carved wooden soles and leather uppers had long been everyday working shoes. The fashion versions kept that basic construction: a thick, contoured wooden sole, often of alder or birch, with a leather upper nailed around it, usually as a backless slip-on or a closed-toe mule. Many had decorative nail heads along the edge of the leather. There were also plenty of variations on the idea, including the wooden-footbed "exercise sandal," with a single strap and a sculpted sole, marketed as good for the feet and the posture.

They fitted the decade's mood perfectly. The back-to-nature movement prized natural materials, traditional crafts, and clothes that felt honest and rustic, and wood and leather shoes looked the part. Clogs went naturally with the bohemian and prairie silhouette - long skirts, peasant blouses, maxi dresses - and with denim and cheesecloth. They also borrowed some of the appeal of the decade's interest in folk and global dress, which valued traditional, handmade objects from all over the world.

They also shared something with platforms: height and chunkiness. A wooden sole added a few inches and a solid, grounded look that balanced flared trousers and long hems, which is part of why the two shoe styles coexisted so comfortably. Clogs were loud, too - you could hear someone in clogs coming down a corridor - and many schools and offices had mixed feelings about them. I think they're one of the decade's most underrated fashion stories. They show the natural, homemade, comfortable side of the 1970s that's easy to forget next to the glitter and the platforms, and the style has come back regularly ever since.