What Footwear Are You Wearing Today?

K

Kennedy Jr. Jr.

New Member
Corcovado

Corcovado

Senior Member
And not just any white bucks, but white bucks from the only purveyor that one was to buy such exalted footwear: Barrie Ltd. of New Haven, Connecticut, located right next door to J. Press in the middle of the Yale campus. What joy!

Pardon my ignorance but is there a connection between Barrie Ltd and Alden’s Barrie last?
 
TKI67

TKI67

Super Member
FLMike said:
I personally enjoyed this one, as well....

https://reggiedarling.blogspot.com/2012/12/reggies-alden-slip-ons-and-why-he-wears.html
Click to expand...
Awesome. It so reminds me of my similar experiences at Texas Commerce, the Houston equivalent of the Morgan Guaranty experience. I helped the Marketing Division write the dress guide, probably about thirty five pages with embossed cover. How I wish I had kept a copy! I also remember the blazer and flannels on Saturday morning. Now TCB is part of JP Morgan/Chase and far less formal, as are most banks. As I was a lawyer I interacted with our outside counsel a lot and observed those exact tribal distinctions. Friends at Baker & Botts encouraged me to flaunt the very dress guide I had helped write and wear pink shirts and cordovan tassel loafers. It amused my CEO who was never seen in anything other than Oxxford suits, white shirts, black Church’s bals, and Hermès ties.
 
Fading Fast

Fading Fast

Connoisseur
FLMike said:
I personally enjoyed this one, as well....

https://reggiedarling.blogspot.com/2012/12/reggies-alden-slip-ons-and-why-he-wears.html
Click to expand...
You're so right - great piece.

I started on Wall Street about the same time as that gentleman, but I went into trading not investment banking (trading, at that time, was for up-from-the-street kids / investment banking took connections and pedigree) with my first firm being at 120 Broadway (the first office building in NYC to take up a full city block - it is an enormous building ⇩)
MNY235082.jpg

My second firm was at 14 Wall Street ⇩
446df012a21b01007de3f1f2b4933e4d.jpg

Both firms were old-line Wall Street establishments rich in tradition. And at both, the young guys like me were, like Reggie, incredibly focused on getting the clothes correct.

To his shoe comments, I was advised by the older guys to buy a black tassel loafer. I bought the Florsheim "Royal Imperial" for $120 (no way in the world I would ever have told my dad what I paid for them) that looked like these ⇩ (mine survived until 2012 as they were disintegrating at that point). Back then, Florsheim made a quality shoe and $120 was a lot of money especially to a kid just starting out.
3724728418_cf16b1fb0c_b.jpg


It's funny how on the Trad side of the house, sometimes, tassel loafers, especially with suits for work, are looked on with a bit of suspicion by the Ivy guys. I have no doubt that they are right about what was "acceptable" in Ivy's heyday, but in the '80s on Wall Street - they were one of "the" shoes for the young guys.

One more connect to the author, in the early '90s, I was hired by a firm that was located in the building he mentioned - One Liberty Plaza - that had a Brooks Brothers store on its ground floor. When trading was slow and I needed to clear my head, I'd strolled through (and spend too much money in) that store.
 
eagle2250

eagle2250

Connoisseur/Curmudgeon Emeritus - Moderator
Premium Member
Today's footwear choice is a pair of LL Bean's Bison hide Allagash loafers. I purchased these things, on sale, for $67 a couple of years back and have worn them hard sine then. They are light on the foot, feature a very comfortable insole and have so far, proven to be virtually indestructible. I'm impressed with the very real value this inexpensive pair of shoes represents.

IMG_3156.JPG
 
TKI67

TKI67

Super Member
Fading Fast said:
You're so right - great piece.

I started on Wall Street about the same time as that gentleman, but I went into trading not investment banking (trading, at that time, was for up-from-the-street kids / investment banking took connections and pedigree) with my first firm being at 120 Broadway (the first office building in NYC to take up a full city block - it is an enormous building ⇩)
View attachment 30929
My second firm was at 14 Wall Street ⇩
View attachment 30930
Both firms were old-line Wall Street establishments rich in tradition. And at both, the young guys like me were, like Reggie, incredibly focused on getting the clothes correct.

To his shoe comments, I was advised by the older guys to buy a black tassel loafer. I bought the Florsheim "Royal Imperial" for $120 (no way in the world I would ever have told my dad what I paid for them) that looked like these ⇩ (mine survived until 2012 as they were disintegrating at that point). Back then, Florsheim made a quality shoe and $120 was a lot of money especially to a kid just starting out.
View attachment 30931

It's funny how on the Trad side of the house, sometimes, tassel loafers, especially with suits for work, are looked on with a bit of suspicion by the Ivy guys. I have no doubt that they are right about what was "acceptable" in Ivy's heyday, but in the '80s on Wall Street - they were one of "the" shoes for the young guys.

One more connect to the author, in the early '90s, I was hired by a firm that was located in the building he mentioned - One Liberty Plaza - that had a Brooks Brothers store on its ground floor. When trading was slow and I needed to clear my head, I'd strolled through (and spend too much money in) that store.
Click to expand...
I have been ruminating on this one, specifically the reference to the “Trad side of the house.” Trad means different things to different people. If by Trad you mean those who were building their sense of style in the forties and fifties, even the very early sixties, I agree that those people tended to put oxfords with suits, but if you move into the mid-sixties and beyond, that was pretty much out the window. Although I learned a lot from my father’s mode of dress in the fifties, my style was forged in high school in the sixties, and our idea of dress shoes was Alden for Brooks tassels. My father went his whole life without wearing a tassel loafer, but he rocked the Alden walkers and NSTs as well as black plain toe oxfords with dark suits.
 
Corcovado

Corcovado

Senior Member
eagle2250 said:
Today's footwear choice is a pair of LL Bean's Bison hide Allagash loafers. I purchased these things, on sale, for $67 a couple of years back and have worn them hard sine then. They are light on the foot, feature a very comfortable insole and have so far, proven to be virtually indestructible. I'm impressed with the very real value this inexpensive pair of shoes represents.
Click to expand...
I am on my second pair of those and agree with your comments.


Wearing my black LHS today, which may or may not be strictly ballroom.
 
Corcovado

Corcovado

Senior Member


I’ve reached the point where this fine pair of Rancourt loafers fits me well. They were generally a little tight on my feet, especially at the instep, and what did the trick was this particular shoe tree which I used to stretch them out.
 
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