What makes our slippers so special, and what inspired them?

Our personal revisitation of the famous Italian slippers have found a great deal of success in hotel rooms around the world. Our ability to offer them at various price points and levels of quality has made them suitable for entry level rooms as well as for the most luxurious suites – but where did they come from and what inspired our design?

“Friulane” get their name from the region in which they were invented, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in north-eastern Italy. They first began to appear around the 1800s on the feet of brides at weddings, parties, and worn by Venetian gondola captains. Their sturdy build and rubber sole allowed them to be worn in a wide variety of settings, combined with their chic velvet exterior to remain fashionable and easy on the eyes.

The original friulane have always been worn regularly in Italy, but their popularity soared ever since Kate Moss became an avid fan, being spotted on numerous occasions wearing them throughout the past few decades. No casual sock-less shoe combines comfort and style as well as the friulane, while being unisex as the same time.

They first began to appear around the 1800s on the feet of brides at weddings, parties, and worn by Venetian gondola captains.

So, what inspired the small modifications of our TerraMater slippers? Although beautiful and comfortable, one aspect of the traditional friulane made them somewhat inadequate for the hospitality industry: the fact that they are not slip on, and have to be made-to-fit to ensure a comfortable experience. They cannot be too big or too small, or they might cause blisters and discomfort. Therefore, we decided to go with an open ankle design to allow them to be slipped on and off quickly, and to solve the issue of them having to be made-to-size, due to this being impossible in the hospitality industry due to supply chain logistics.

As a consequence of making them open ankle, our TerraMater slippers are not meant to be worn to parties or weddings like their original counterparts. Therefore, we decided to ditch the flashy velvet for other materials.On the lower end of the quality and price spectrum, they are made out of polyester. Our mid-range options are made in polyester with a rubber sole, while our highest quality and most luxurious version are made in canvas with a hand stitched rubber sole. Of course, all of our models can be made with your hotel’s logo and custom color scheme.

To learn more about our wide range of slippers, or to get a price quotation, please e-mail us at info@italtrim.com!

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