A slip-on shoe without laces or another fastening, usually with a low heel.
A loafer is a slip-on shoe without laces. Cheaney describes it as typically low-cut, exposing the ankle, with a low heel separate from the sole; many loafers keep a moccasin-style upper, with a U-shaped vamp joined by characteristic stitching. Crockett & Jones builds its loafers either from one whole piece of leather or from two sections, a galosh and an apron, and notes that both constructions have a strap. Without laces, the fit depends on the last: the house names the heel and the joint, the widest part of the shoe, as the points that matter.
Loafers are told apart by what is attached to the vamp. Crockett & Jones lists the penny loafer, with a short strap stitched with a cut-out, the saddle loafer, with a long one, and the tassel loafer, made both lined and unlined. Cheaney adds metal hardware, such as Gucci’s horsebit. A monk strap has a buckle where a loafer has none.
In job listings
Loafer is seldom named in listings. Houses make loafers for both men and women, so the term runs through both sides of a footwear business: product development and merchandising for men’s and women’s collections, and the sales associates who fit and sell them. See current women’s footwear roles.
