My friend and colleague Robert M. Tanguay and his wife Nicole were on an extended visit to Paris recently and they found a small shop that had the Moroccan hand woven raffia shoes pictured here for sale. Robert and Nicole purchased three pairs and generously donated them to the Straw Sandals Project.  There are no signs of wear on the bottoms of the soles and yet the shoes, especially the vamps, do not appear to be made recently. None of them is stamped “made in……” although there is a stamp mark on the inner sole of one pair that I may ultimately be able to trace. I think it is safe to assume that they were made in Morocco, based on the distinctive styling of these shoes. Why is this even a question you may ask? The distinctive weave seen here, and I have read that it arose in North Africa in what is the region of present day Morocco, is very popular today among high end shoe designers.

The second image shows a pair of the Moroccan shoes from Paris along with a pair of Ferragamo flats on your left and a pair of Carrie Forbes flats on your right. A close-up in the third image shows the identical Moroccan weave in each shoe. The latter two pairs of shoes were made in Italy.

The next image shows a pair of Joseph Azagury woman’s shoes designed in London and made in Italy. Joseph Azagury shoes are now handcrafted in London.  Again, the distinctive Moroccan weave was used to make the vamp. The designer Joseph Azagury was born in Morocco, raised in Italy and now lives in London! The final image shows the Azagury shoe beside a Moroccan shoe, verified as made in Morocco, that is item Mor2 in the Straw Sandals Project collection. The close-up shows the Moroccan weave in each shoe. Contemporary designers are helping the weavers and their ancient handcrafting and distinctive weaving to survive in our modern world.