A fashion _ debate
Yes or no Do the shoes make the man?
YES When a good-looking man walks into the room, I’m the first to size him up. I’m not looking for six-pack abs or a megawatt smile; like a seasoned fortune teller, I’m discretely fishing for character clues. Often lumped in with “accessories,” fashionable footwear is easily dismissed as superfluous. But shoes aren’t a style addendum – they anchor a look and send a message. Hand-stitched Italian brogues signal an appreciation for quality and tradition. Bonus points if they’re broken in; no mere peacock, their wearer isn’t interested in a trendy game of one-upmanship. Anyone who lives in sneakers is clearly running from something, and I’d place my bet on adulthood. And cozy Crocs – the footwear equivalent of stained sweatpants – suggest a willingness to accept convenience at any cost, even if it’s dignity. “A man who cares about his shoes puts thought into the details, from his clothing to romance to the bedroom,” a friend once told me. She has a point. If lacing up a pair of oxfords requires too much effort, then what else would a guy in search of comfort let fall by the wayside? I wouldn’t know. But I can still recall what my husband was wearing on his feet the first night we met, and it was love at first sight. by MacKenzie Lewis Kassab
NO Years ago, I had a rule: always judge a man by his shoes. With one downward glance, I imagined a whole world of information was revealed. I could spot an appreciation for fashion or lack thereof, his career, hobbies, aspirations towards hipster status and so much more. Admittedly, it was shallow. I dismissed men based on a functional element of dress that most give little thought to. But in the complex world of dating, it was a simplistic way to separate the well-heeled from the shabbily shod. And I thought my system worked.
Four years later, the hiking boots are still around. Now, their ungainliness has come to suggest something different: an ease in one’s skin that is steady and unwavering. Such quiet, innate confidence may not ooze the amped-up sophistication of fancier footwear, but it will last far longer than any pair of shoes. by Pip Usher A 84
© Gucci, Corneliani
Then I met someone who refused to conform to my golden rule – someone who favored scuffed hiking boots when he was far from a mountain. Grey, clunky apparatus designed solely for practicality, he wore them without a hint of irony. When I suggested buying another pair of shoes to wear around town, he looked confused. “Why?” he asked. “These fit fine.”