From Quaker to Shakermaker, the Clarks 200 x Liam Gallagher Desert Rain

When it comes to iconic British brands, few if any can match the long lasting legacy of Clarks footwear. Currently celebrating their 200th birthday they’ve pulled out all the stops and collaborated with another Great British style institution, the king of the Mancs and big jacket final boss Liam Gallagher. In this piece British Attire will take a look back, not in anger, but in admiration of this Somerset shoemaker that’s become a cult brand beloved everywhere from the dancehalls of Kingston to the streetwear tribes of Shinjuku and lovingly endorsed by Staten Island hip hop kings and Manchester indie royalty alike.

Somerset to the World

The story starts in the sleepy Somerset village of Street back in 1825 where Cyrus Clark, a Quaker and farmer, decided to let his younger brother James branch out from their sheepskin rug making business and into slippers. Using short rolled sheepskins considered inadequate for rugs James cut out the designs and had them made up by the village shoemaker Esau Whitnell. These were then taken by James’ cousin and school friend Charles Gilpin who sold them on Dolphin Street in the nearby city of Bristol. Though simple, the shoes were a big hit and soon became lovingly referred to as the ‘Brown Petersburg’ or ‘Brown Peter’ if you were in a rush.

Vintage Brown Petersburg Slipper

As popularity for the footwear side of the C&J Clarks business grew Cyrus and James used their Quaker network to expand the business and by 1842 were producing 12,000 pairs of shoes a year selling them across the UK as well as parts of Ireland, Canada and Australia. The finished shoes were made at this stage by local piece rate labourers before being sent off via horse and cart to the newly constructed Glastonbury train station. This is also how they would have made their way to the Great Exhibition of 1851 where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert admired their fancy footwear, later awarding Clarks two exhibition medals in recognition of their services to British industry.

Read more about the Great Exhibition here - Styling on the Shoulders of Giants

The Great Exhibition

As the century progressed so too did the Clarks business and by 1897 the factory they had built in Street was producing around 800,000 pairs a year and employing 100s of local people. Having danced around with a number of different names such as the Sylvia Ladies range and the Tor brand named after the local hilly landmark it was around the mid to late 1920s that the brand began to actively use the trade name ‘Clarks’. This was followed in 1933 by the iconic Clarks handwritten logo which was drawn by Bancroft Clark in his hotel room during the International Festival in Paris.

Clarks Logo Above Store

The next significant chapter in the Clarks story happens during WWII where James Clark’s great grandson Nathan used the various places he was stationed with the army to do a little bit of research and development for the family business. Landing something of a jackpot whilst fighting alongside the Eighth Army in North Africa who became better known as the Desert Rats. Due to the hot and sandy nature of the terrain many of the heroic Rats had swapped their heavy boots in favour of a Dutch South African inspired shoe called the Veldtschoen that they had made up for them in the bazaars of Cairo. Impressed by their simplicity Nathan got hold of a pair which he duly took apart on the floor of his tent and cut around them using newspaper to create a set of patterns to send back to the team in Blighty. Despite Nathan’s enthusiasm the rest of the Clarks family were not impressed and declared that the shoe would be a commercial disaster. Regardless, Nathan persevered and eventually had a pair of prototypes made up which he showed to the editor of Esquire at the Chicago shoe fair in 1949 who instantly fell in love with them and printed a glowing feature which led to the official release of the Desert Boot happening in 1950.

Though already regarded as a practical and healthy form of footwear the new Desert Boot silhouette arrived at a similar time to the arrival of British subcultures and youthful rebellion. Eschewing the style of their parents for the first time ever, these new tribes of teenage beatniks, jazz fans and modernists forged their own path when it came to choosing what to wear. And what they wore on their feet were Clarks Desert Boots. Though it was not just the Brits doing this either as this timeless shoe also gained favour overseas with like minded style rebels appearing on the feet of everyone from rioting students in Paris to the Rude Boys of Jamaica.

Early Desert Boot Ad

Whilst the music and movements associated with Clarks Desert Boots and its various suede and leather variants such as the Wallabee and Desert Trek may have changed over the years the shoes have remained the same. Representing both revolution and relaxation in equal amounts, Jamaica and its phenomenal musical legacy have played an integral part in placing the shoes into cult status territory. There are a countless amount of reggae songs that name drop Clarks and probably a thousand records where the artists can be seen showing off their favourite pair of crepe soled beauties on the cover. Just like reggae itself these shoes spread across the globe and influenced a myriad of different movers and shaker makers.

As Seen in Jamaica

Already a mod mainstay in the previous decade during the seventies, Clarks made unique shoes such as the Polyveldt that appealed to Northern Soul dancers spending the night at Wigan Casino just as much as they did to geography teachers on field trips. The eighties saw the Desert Boot become a mainstay of introspective indie bands with the Wallabee also enjoying a surprise resurgence within the burgeoning rave scene. Though in the 1990s it was perhaps two bands from different sides of the pond that were solely responsible for making the Wallabee a must have shoe.

Illustration of The Wu-Tang Clan

Long before collaborations with cool musicians were a regular occurrence, the New York hip hop scene were wearing Clarks purely out of love. Though seen on the likes of everyone from Slick Rick to Biggie Smalls it was the Wu-Tang Clan that really put Wallabees back on the map stateside. Regularly seen rocking their Wallabees and dropping their name in various verses throughout the nineties it was this authentic affection for Clarks that made demand go through the roof. Whilst half a world away on the other side of the Atlantic a young band called Oasis were changing the style rules by bringing back a strong mod aesthetic in their own uniquely Mancunian way. Inspired in part by the styles worn by the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays who came before them, baggy jeans, big parkas and bags of attitude were all propped up by a pair of box fresh Clarks. Oasis clearly loved their clothes and as the archival images reveal they really loved Clarks shoes too. Though as an interesting side note, close allies of Oasis The Verve are often mistakenly credited with featuring a pair of Wallabees on the cover of 1997 album Urban Hymns. Though this iconic cover invariably led to a rise in sales of Wallabees the shoes in question were actually slightly inferior copies that definitely were not made by Clarks. A fact we were told by a good friend of British Attire and also the man who designed the Oasis logo as well as all their artwork in the nineties (as well as The Verve’s and many more) Brian Cannon.

Microdot Boutique

Brian Cannon and Microdot Boutique

Now familiar to millions Clarks have come a long way from making slippers in Somerset to collaborations with the likes of Supreme, Stussy, Aime Leon Dore, Carhartt and BAPE as well as the aforementioned Wu-Tang Wallabees and the LG Ramblers made with Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher back in 2022. So it seems like a fitting tribute to one of Britain's most beloved brands and bands that Liam and Clarks are reuniting to make a special version of the iconic singer’s favourite Clarks shoe the Desert Rain. Destined to sell out just as quickly as Oasis gig tickets, these Mancunian moccasins are set to be the shoe of choice for those lucky enough to get their hands on a pair of tickets to one of the most highly anticipated music events of the decade so far.