The history of the Mary Janes

Mary Jane:- " A flat, round-toed shoe for women and girls, with a single strap across the top" Walking about your life these days, you'd be able to spot several different women's Mary Jane Shoes in a variety of colours and styles from the highstreet to the dance floor. Traditionally, the Mary Janes are closed, low cut shoe with either a singular or multiple buckle strap. Mary Jane shoes are such a popular style these days, it's hard to imagine life without such a pivotal style It's strange to think now that they appeared fashionably through the Renaissance era, but worn dominantly by men. Henry VIII of England rocked a pair of Mary Jane kicks, as seen in paintings of the old king. Despite not being very popular, we love his sassy footwear choices. The buckle strap/s appeared in the early 19th Century and have been a founding feature to this great style The style became a popular footwear statement in the 20s and by the 30s and 40s women had dominated the Mary Jane as their own. In the lates 90s popular sub cultures such a punk rock, psychobilly and goths claimed the style but added an alternative twist of platforms, chunky heels and thicker straps to give the edge they were looking for - they were a simple school shoe no more. At T.U.K. we've added our iconic kitty character to the Mary Janes as an applique overlay on the toe, onto a wider fitting sneaker sole unit, the A6467L; which has become one of our most popular styles. Alongside the A6467L, we have boosted our Kitty Mary Janes with some attitude - The T2025 Anarchic Kitty Mary Jane was born! These two styles in particular have become continuous over the years, as there is always demand for this great timeless styles. If the chunky style isn't for you, we've made a narrow plimmie version with a variety of characters available from owls and foxes to kittys and teddys, as well as some styles now in vegan-friendly materials. In addition to the T.U.K. kitty mary janes, we've added some great mary Jane inspired heels into our collections over the years; the closed toe, multi strap look is now a favorite of ours when designing new collections. This upcoming AW14 collection, we've thrown back to the 90s when the Mary Jane platforms were popular, with our new Nosebleed inspired collection - which we are very excited to share with you, so stay tuned!!