My daughters, Annabelle, and Lucy, used to tease me mercilessly about my infatuation with Julio Iglesias. Not just because, back in the 1970s when the Spanish crooner was giving a concert in Lausanne, and I had moved heaven and earth to get a ticket (and an interview) with the absurdly divine dreamboat. But because I also swooned over Iglesias' bare tanned feet tucked into espadrilles as he sang of love.
Apparently, I was not the only Swiss housewife who couldn't resist Iglesias. I, however, might have been the only female who thought his sexy feet equaled his seductive ballads. “Senorita Corner,” Madame Formosa, my Spanish housekeeper, told me when I burst into tears upon telling her I'd missed Julio because of a sick child, “you wouldn't have been happy; Julio came on stage in a black suit, black tie and shiny black shoes and his singing was still maraviolloso.”
The teasing only stopped when Annabelle chose a pair of green, silk, high-wedged espadrilles to wear with the white linen dress for her wedding in our Montecito, California garden. Espadrilles were the perfect shoe for this casual ceremony, held among palm trees and flowering trellises. She still brings them out on occasion to give jeans or a flowered cotton dress an added je ne sais quoi.
Espadrilles Priced from $5 o $650
Over the last seven decades since celebrities like Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, and Noel Coward were among those who wore them (even Ernest Hemingway in Pamplona to imitate the white espadrilles of the bull runners), the iconic shoe has gradually become the spring and summer shoe of choice for the fashion-conscious (male and female) seeking style and comfort. Espadrilles have been especially hot since the Duchess of Cambridge started wearing them in 2019.
High-end women's fashion houses came out with their versions in linen, silk, and leather beginning in the 1970s when Yves St. Laurent introduced espadrilles to the catwalk. Chanel's 2024 versions will set one back $650. At Mediterranean resort boutiques espadrilles can be picked up for as little as five euro (I've never paid more). Just make sure that the soles are the authentic braided jute and not Chinese plastic.
Espadrilles have been around for at least 600 years in the Basque regions of France and Spain. There is even a quiet debate (unlike a political one) between the two countries over which country invented the soft jute-soled shoe worn by farmers, fishermen, and soldiers laced up to the knee (as Salvador Dali did to express his Catalonian roots).
To All the Girls He’s Loved
Try as I might I have not been able to find a photo of Julio in espadrilles. But I did discover photos of the crooner bare footed in a pair of Zapatos Julio Iglesiases (a Spanish shoemaker must have offered Iglesias a hefty handful of pesos to wear its moccasins) and I admit a tingling chill went up my spine upon seeing the photo.
Julio's new look is as sexy as ever.
When driving and Julio's hit songs – “Crazy,” “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” are at the top of my list – come over the airwaves, I turn up the volume in my Mini Cooper, hit the gas pedal, and say to myself, “This dreamy grandfather of the same age still has it.”
And I do, too!
wonderful story…gives insight into a woman’s way of thinking about love & fashion…
Julio has a great voice but his feet are too small