Sandals in the History

Mario Doni has always distinguished for its production of handmade leather sandals, an ancient shoe or better say the oldest one. 

Sandal in ancient Egypt

As a status symbol

From some findings it emerged that the first sandals were made in Egypt around 3500 BC in order to protect the feet from the hot ground.
They were simple models made by leaving the footprint first in the wet sand and then reproducing it in natural size on the woven papyrus to which leather laces were applied. Often the sole was also made of leather and were then adorned with precious stones and other decorations.
They were obviously a privilege for a little part of society, a status symbol of the classes at the top of the social pyramid. The funeral priests wore only white sandals, a symbol of purity, while the pharaohs were gold models, with the tip of the sole raised and turned inwards, and with images of the enemies drawn on the soles, to step on them step by step.

Sandal in ancient Rome

A battle sandal

We also find them in ancient Rome with styles to which we refer even today as the various “gladiator” or “caliga” models mainly used on the battlefield. 

• a real open-air boot
• heavy and resistant
• designed to avoid the risk of blisters during long marches. Often they were worn with socks during the winter.

Sandal in ancient Greece

Purely Feminine Shoes

If in Ancient Rome sandals were mainly worn by men, in Greece the sandal was a purely feminine shoe, made of leather and embellished as desired. The thing that differentiated those for men or women, as well as the design, was the type of leather used, softer in women’s shoes.

Sandal in the Middle Ages

A symbol of poverty

The sandals as a social status returns several times throughout history, but not always as a synonym of wealth. In fact, in the Middle Ages they were a symbol of poverty and of renunciation of wealth and were priests and friars to wear them. 

Today we often hear about “Franciscan” models to refer to a simple, practical but always current sandal model.

The return of the sandal

The entrance into fashion

After a few centuries of disappearance they made their “entrance into fashion” in the early decades of the 1900s, except in some more puritan societies where it was not allowed to have shoes that left the foot uncovered, always connected with sensuality, who preferred instead closed boots with the heel.
In the 1920s, ankle straps and shoes that allowed to glimpse the foot more and more began to take place together with the shimmering of satin dresses, up to the next decade in which, thanks to the intervention of the designer Ferragamo gives a lot of importance to women’s shoes, more and more exposed and high.

The sandal Today

After the huge success of heels that is still timeless, from the 80s onwards the flat sandals that we find today combined with every type of style were decisively reaffirmed.

The models of Mario Doni Collection are a perfect combination of yesterday’s and today’s fashion, they remain faithful to the origins but with a gaze always projected to the future.