The great clog comeback

When I was in third grade, clogs were all the rage. Every girl had to have a pair, which resulted in a year of clomping through the elementary school's green-tiled halls. It also resulted in a rash of sprained ankles, which kept the school nurse busy. Lesson (not that anyone bothered to learn it): 9 year-old girls lack the balance and coordination to gracefully manage clogs. (By the next year it was on to mini skirts and tentative crushes on Eric Estrada.)

70s vintage clogs from The Blue Kimono

My mom had clogs then, too — and she could actually walk in them. Hers were dark reddish-brown leather with a stylized toe cap and an ankle strap that buckled. She wore them with India-print wrap-around skirts. We were only just out of the 70s, after all. I coveted them, sitting in her closet strapping them on over my knee socks.

Ankle-strap clogs from The Fab Needle

I think that the Dansko company almost single-handedly kept the dream alive for all the clog girls out there. Kind of ironically, the shoe maker has veered off into thin-soled sandals and a matronly line of heels just as the fashion world is ready to embrace clunky clogs again. Glamour magazine ponders the effect of this trend while Chanel sends clogs down the runway and vintage savvy girls trawl ebay for delightfully retro 70s and 80s wood-and-leather originals.