Fashion: Cloggy Days

They look like matching gravy boats and sound like Majestic Prince on the stable floor. Thumbscrews would seem more comfortable to wear. Still, such is the rage for wooden shoes these days that no one cares.

Clogs, in one form or another, have been kicking around for centuries. The Swedes took to them long ago, to such an extent that they are known as "Swedish sneakers" even in Sweden. Only recently, however, has the shoe caught on in America. When Ulla Olsenius, now 30, came to the U.S. six years ago as the exclusive importer of clogs for two...