For a No-Toe-Show Summer, Get a Pair of Friulanes
It’s the time of year when it’s icky, sticky, and there’s no telling what your toes will touch when you leave the house, be it a goldfish puddle or the friendly neighborhood rats. The standard-issued Havaianas, a Birkenstock-like Camper, or Sarah Jessica Parker’s Dr. Scholl’s can’t help you. Neither can a Plasticana fisherman. It might just be time to go close-toed this summer — and that’s where a friulane comes in.
As the story goes, the friulane (or furlane, or occasionally scarpet and scarpa,literally “shoe” in Italian) originated in the Friuli–Venezia Giulia region of Italy around the 19th century, and the first ones were lined with bed-sheet scraps. They became the slippers of the Italian gondoliers (as much a signifier of a gondolier as the stripes) after World War II. Now, decades later, they’re known affectionately as “Venetian slippers,” and they’re to Italy what espadrilles are to Spain. The biggest difference between the espadrille and friulane is the sole: Traditionally, espadrilles have a rope sole, whereas friulanes have a rubber one (often from recycled bicycle tires).
In fact, while I was reporting our guide to espadrilles something interesting happened: Not sure they’re espadrilles, but … was a common refrain emailed back to me, with a link to a friulane. I could say it was a coincidence once or twice, but enough sources told me this that I wondered what was afoot. (I had seen the Sea x Flabelus collab recently, too.) To quote Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn’t help but wonder: Are friulanes the answer to the closed-toed summer-shoe question? Meaning a shoe that reads summer, and doesn’t show toe? Unlike mesh flats and the water-sandal-hiking hybrid, they won’t reveal a lack of pedicure or cracked heels, either. And so, I present: some friulanes for consideration.
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“I have walked many, many steps in many pairs of these,” says Elizabeth Cardinal Tamkin, author of the newsletter Corner Booth and content director at Kule. Tamkin describes them as the “perfect vacation shoe” for packing in a suitcase and also easy to clean, with dabs of Tide to Go getting out the little stains gotten along the way. She’s worn them so much she actually had to get them resoled.
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It turns out that Victoria Filippini, a content creator and writer of the newsletter Taking Notes, is actually from the same region as the friulane on her father’s side of the family. Fittingly, Vibi Venezia’s Nero went with her to the bel paese this past September. “If they’re good enough for the Italians on their bumpy roads, they’re good enough for me,” Filippini tells me. That’s not to say they’re an Arcopedico. “They wouldn’t be my first choice to walk 10,000 steps in,” she adds. “They’re definitely more of a leisurely stroll type of shoe.”
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If I were to get some Vibi Venezias for myself, I’d get this Brigitte pair, which are seemingly out of a Swan Lake production.
[Editor’s note: The company lists its prices in euros, so this is an approximation to dollars.]
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Strategist senior editor Hilary Reid wore these “for a full day around town and they stayed securely buckled in place” — an impressive feat. “They don’t exactly have foot support, but they don’t feel totally flat,” she says.
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Flabelus Ribbon
The beribboned ballerinas from Flabelus are, as artist Maggie Mae Featherstone describes, “whimsical, Coney Island–strolling shoes that scream double gelato scoops and lazes by the lake.” These come in “all the colors of the rainbow” including a delightful cherry red with bubblegum-pink piping and petrol green with teal. Their bottom helps “if you’re ever caught in a classic New York monsoon,” Featherstone explains. These do the zhuzh-ing up while she’s on a grocery-store run or taking a walk through the park. Just note that Featherstone recommends sizing up, as the shoes run about half a size smaller.
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Of course, Sea’s creatures (fish, deer, and duck) are embroidered onto this Flabelus pair.
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Piedàterre’s been in the friulane business since 1952. Artist Melly Wirtes ordered a pair around five years ago, back when a 41 was the largest size they offered in women’s shoe sizes. Nowadays, the sizing is more unisex, going up to a size 48. Her husband has these himself. “Once, we attended a holiday brunch whilst unknowingly matching slippers,” she says. “Someone pointed it out to us and we had a chuckle as they say you start to look like your partner after a while.”
[Editor’s note: The company lists its prices in euros, so this is an approximation to dollars.]
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Reid also has some Piedàterres that she picked up in Venice a couple of years ago, in the line’s non-mary-jane style.
[Editor’s note: The company lists its prices in euros, so this is an approximation to dollars.]
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These remind Happy Medium’s Hazel Ferguson of Onitsuka Tiger’s Mexico 66, famously worn by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.
[Editor’s note: The company lists its prices in euros, so this is an approximation to dollars.]
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And while Wirtes’s Piedàterres are lined in velvet, which can get hot while not wearing socks, these Sveti Stefans have a cotton lining that “feels better when barefoot.”
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I don’t understand why Le Monde Beryl refers to its friulane as an espadrille? It’s not an espadrille — it’s a friulane!
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Cayuma Pagliacci
Cayuma’s Pagliacci, as seen in a recent installment of Jane Herman’s newsletter. They’re available in hues of blue, green, yellow, etc. (Herman’s are burgundy.)
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And a particularly appealing fruilane cousin, thanks to the rubber soles: these Viani Milano hybrid boat shoes, which Tamkin compares to Keds.
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