Saturday, March 12, 2011

Footwear

The most reliable way to identify a West Indian woman, in contrast to a woman from another part of the world, is by her choice of leisure footwear.

For the West Indian woman, there is only one type of shoe to wear during leisure time, and it is the type modeled in the photo to the left: a thin-soled, thong sandal with a t-strap connected to an ankle strap.


Within this type, there is room for infinite variation. The example above has beads along the t-strap and silver faux-reptile skin on the remaining straps. Some are simple black or brown leather numbers. HB reported that a coworker of his recently wore a version with neon pink leather straps, and pink feathers adorning the t-strap. Whatever embellishments or decoration they may contain, though, the shape is the same.

Watching the feet of passersby in Road Town will instantly reveal to you the women that hail from the Caribbean. Flip-flops and other types of sandals are for Europeans, or Americans. Ask anyone wearing the t-strap sandal pictured where she was born, and it will inevitably be the name of an island - St. Lucia, Dominica, Barbados.

I have to admit that the feet in these sandals generally look lovely. They seem to be the perfect thing to show off a recent pedicure. For comfort, though, I'll take my thick-soled Reef flip-flops any day.

1 comment:

  1. Lovely to look at but very difficult on the feet! Give me some kind of heel on the back end!

    ReplyDelete

Search This Blog