2011 Laura Ashley

In 2011 the shoe company Clarks revived the print Sweet Alyssum from the Laura Ashley archive and made it into a Desert Boot. Originally the British officer Nathan Clark discovered the Desert Boot during World War II in Cairo, Egypt, where soldiers of the Eighth Army used to wear a sort of prototype model out of suede which they had made at the local bazar. After his return home in 1949 Nathan Clark started to produce the first models through his family's orthopedic shoe manufactory and export them all over the world. The shoes got fashionable amongst American students and English mods in the 60s and 70s, what helped them to their rebellious charm. One advertising slogan called them "The offbeat casual for the upbeat intellectuals."