Probably not something you are asking yourself every day..
But here at Ocelot Market, we are! In our journey toward integrating and preserving cultural designs in modern society we like to showcase culturally significant articles of clothing and hone in on how it is made and came to be. In our recent showcase on Morocco, we realized we needed to get down to business on why there are so many kinds of babouches and what that means. So without further ado.
We found that the traditional babouche does in fact hail from the Middle East, where Bedouins, a grouping of nomadic Arab peoples who have historically inhabited the desert regions in North Africa, began wearing babouches centuries ago. "Babouche' is actually a French term that comes from the Arabic 'babush' or Persian 'papush'. The pointed shoe became fashionable amongst French courtiers in the 17th century.
A really interesting part of babouche history is that in 1689, Alaoui Sultan Moulay Ismail captured the harbour town of Larache in northern Morocco and decided in an incredibly impetuous way to create a law about babouche wearing. He BANNED black shoes, which he regarded as an abominable emblem of Christianity, imported and encouraged by the Spaniards and stated henceforth only Jews could – actually MUST – wear black babouches, the strange, flat, lightweight Moroccan slippers with pointed toes. Only Muslims were to wear the canary-yellow ones. And sure enough you will see this in the medina TO THIS DAY.
There are two styles of babouche you will see in Morocco if strolling through the medina, round toed or pointy toed. Round toes are called Berber. Pointed toes are called Arabic. We prefer Arabic ourselves and only supply as such. We chose to work with workshops of the highest, highest quality that make babouches with tough leather soles fit for wearing outside.
However, if you do find yourself in Morocco and want to have the full Moroccan experience of bartering for a pair there, we would recommend saving your babouches purchasing to the city of Fes. Fes is the city of tanneries which actually supply the leather which you will get the highest quality and best price.