How a shoe designed for gals with bunions caught on with celebrities.

Have you wondered how trends ever get started? We have. Usually it’s a proliferation of street scenesters adopting a style amongst themselves that they deem appropriate and stylistically cutting in their respective tribal habitats before some cunning marketer or department store then copies them the next morning and pushes it onto a mass public courtesy of the occasional celebrity endorsement. That said the Worishofer clog came about through a completely different way before being adopted by celebrities. Which way? Let’s put on our Worishofer clogs and find out…

Daily Mail co uk: This shoe has been soundlessly padding around in certain circles for the best part of 70 years.

So step into the world of the Wörishofer – a sandal which, as its name may well suggest, puts function firmly before fashion.

Named after the Bavarian spa town where it is made (Bad Wörishofen), the cork-soled saviour to the aching feet of ladies of a certain age is enjoying an unlikely surge in popularity. Celebrities such as Maggie Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst have been spotted wearing Wörishofers – which come in several designs and colours but never sway from their comfort-comes-first approach. Bavaria? Last time we checked in with Bavaria they were drinking Hefeweizens and tending to the morning hens. But of course what’s good for Bavarians is good for Maggie Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst.



In America, the wedged sandals, which retail for about £40, are displayed in boutiques in trendy corners of New York.

And although not yet available in Britain, it seems just a matter of time before the Wörishofer heads this way.

Paul Weitman, of U.S.-based Laurevan shoes, has sold them for 26 years, but said in the past two sales have leapt 50 per cent.

‘Younger women have really started getting interested in the shoes,’ he said. ‘My daughter is 28 and my wife is 56, but both wear them. They have just caught on and i can’t explain it. Why worry about explanations when all you need to know is that the Worishofer will keep your tootsies feeling comfortable this summer. Sometimes Bavarians just know best…







