60 Years of the Horsebit Loafer

Gucci Celebrates 60 Years of the Horsebit Loafer

In the 60 years since the Gucci brand designed the now ubiquitous Horsebit Loafer, countless musicians, politicians, designers, artists and everyday gentlemen have made the Gucci loafer their shoe of choice. Cole Simmons takes a look at the many MEN over the years who wore the bold and the beautiful Italian gem.

Think of it as the first shoe you placed on your shelf with a smile on your face and a twinkle in your eye : Gucci loafers have held a certain right of passage for debonair men throughout the worldassixty years ago Italian men seemed to have decided (almost collectively) that there was no other shoe of choice.The result was creating (perhaps unbeknownst to the Italian male population) a cult following of this now iconic shoe over half a century ago.

Frida Giannini, creative director of Gucci, summed up the brands most influential shoe when she explained “Since 1953, the classic beauty and absolute functionality of the shoe has remained the same. The Horsebit Loafer is still one of the most iconic items in the Gucci archives, and it has been part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1985. A fitting epigraph for just how unique and influential the loafer has become in a sea of blink-and-you-missed-them trends.

By Cole Simmons

Fashion Editor

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