Tuesday, February 9, 2010
College Casual: Chuck Taylor's
Posted on 9:04 PM by Metropolitan
The iconic "Chuck Taylor All-Stars" or Converse "All-Stars" are a symbol of Americana and college life and were first created in 1917, but popularized and brought into pop culture by pro-basketball player Chuck Taylor. Chuck was so impressed by their performance that he made it his weapon of choice while on the basketball court. He proposed some modifications to the original design to enhance flexibility and provide more ankle support, and thus in 1923 the Chuck Taylor name patch was to be forever emblazoned on every pair of Converse All-Star to be sold thereafter. 600 million pairs of All-Stars have been sold since that faithful year that Chuck signed on to work as a salesman but unfortunately for him he only received salary and not a penny in commission for having his name immortalized on such a famous piece of American history.
Members of the band "Rage Against The Machine" (pictured above) were big fans of All-Stars.
Band member "The Edge" who drums for U2 is frequently seen wearing All-Stars.
During the 1950s All-Stars became ever popular with the Rockabilly and Greaser subculture of America, before gradually becoming accepted by mainstream society as a fashion forward shoe. This brought about to the market many different varieties of the shoe in both high top, and low cut traditional sneaker styles. Their extreme comfort, affordable price, and ease with which one can customize the shoe to create their own unique design has resulted in All-Stars re-emerging every few years in popularity with different subcultures such as with the grunge rock bands like Nirvana in the 1990s, punk bands such as Rage Against The Machine, and pop rock bands such as U2.
The hit movie "Grease" starring John Travolta which focused on the Greaser subculture featured All-Stars
prominently.
All-Stars are suited to the rockabilly lifestyle.
All-Stars have made numerous appearances in film and media, such as the movie iRobot where actor Will Smith's character "Detective Spooner" is an avid fan of the shoes.
The choice of fabric for All-Stars has always been a 2-ply canvas, except for a brief period where 1-ply was favoured to lower cost, however, a return to the original 2-ply was implemented to satisfy the demands of All-Stars die hard aficionados world-wide. A recent resurgence of All-Stars in Europe has been fuelled by massive consumption of All-Stars in Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries to fuel the current trend, a revitalization of 1980s style of fashion. It is only a matter of time till these stylish shoes are once again seen adorning the feet of stylish people in North American cities. You heard it here first!
These shoes are one of the few examples of truly unisex fashion as they look stylish on both guys and gals. Women often pair these with leggings, and guys prefer to wear them with skinny jeans. We will now show you three ways to wear your All-Stars. While these shoes are available in a wide variety of colours we have opted for white as they give you that all around badass look.
Look 1
A more formal look that is suited for a weekend jaunt in town or perhaps even a casual day at work. Pair your All-Stars with a good pair of skinny jeans and a slim fitting button down shirt.
Look 2
Almost identical to the first look but to make it even more casual all you need to do is change the shirt to a graphic t-shirt. This is ideal for a meeting with the guys. This is a re-creation of the look that "The Edge" is modeling in a photograph above.
Look 3
For our third and final look we recommend adding a biker jacket over top of the t-shirt to create a trendy masculine look reminiscent of what was popular during the Greaser era. This style is extremely popular in Europe right now amongst fashion forward gentlemen. This "biker style" has yet to hit the shores of North America, so if you reside there and pull this off you are ahead of the curve!
Check out the Converse website to purchase your own pair.
So after reading this article what is your opinion about the Chuck Taylor's? Are they as hot today as they were when they first came out? Which look was your favourite? Leave your comments below, and remember to subscribe and comment to let us know if you found this article helpful! Alternatively if you are too shy to leave a comment how about taking the the Chuck Taylor Shoe Poll!
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