Post WWI Fashions for Thoroughbreds

There is something about the rundown heel that is taken by most folk as an earmark of slovenliness and the well set up, well cared for shoe, in the eyes of most folk, indicates a thoroughbred man or woman about as soon as any thing. Well bred persons always avoid wearing muddy or wet shoes into the house. If rubbers are worn they should be removed on the porch or in the vestibule, even when only a short call is to be made. Muddy shoes may be cleaned on the doormat before entering the house. there is something about the rundown heel that is taken by most folk as an earmark of slovenliness and the well set up, well cared for shoe, in the eyes of most folk, indicates a thoroughbred man or woman about as soon as any thing. 

“A fair exterior is a silent recommendation.”—Publius Syrus

For both men and women heavier shoes are coming into favor. The war has had something to do with this, for the man in khaki is, for the time being the beau deal of masculinity and the man in khaki wears stout shoes. For the past few seasons women of all classes have worn shoes for the street that in other years would have been worn only by very silly or ill bred women. And now the pendulum is swinging back again ami already women who lead in matters of fashion have returned to the street shoe for street wear. This means a straight, medium or low heel and a sole that is of far thickness. 

We are always favorably impressed by the young woman who wears smart but sensible, well cared for shoes for business or the street, if one could hope to wear high heeled shoes without having the heels run over and grow wobbly when worn day after day in the office or about the house then the vogue for that dainty sort of footgear might have continued But there is something about the rundown heel that is taken by most folk as an earmark of slovenliness and the well set up, well cared for shoe, in the eyes of most folk, indicates a thoroughbred man or woman about as soon as any thing. 

Well bred persons always avoid wearing muddy or wet shoes into the house. If rubbers are worn they should be removed on the porch or in the vestibule, even when only a short call is to be made. Muddy shoes may be cleaned on the doormat before entering the house. I once knew a farmer’s wife who said that the hardest thing she had to endue in life was the fact that her husband would insist on wearing his muddy boots into the kitchen. No matter how carefully she cleaned the house it was sure to be tracked with mud and dust daily and as a result she was worrying herself ill over what scented to be merely a slight fault on the part of her husband. 

Had that husband possessed instinctive good breeding he would have made a point of cleaning his boots or of changing them in the vestibule for house slippers. Had he been visiting the home of a wealthy relative in the city he would not have thought of tracking in mud from the street, he would have known that was rude. But because he and his wife were off on a farm ten miles from the nearest railroad and ate their meals in the kitchen he thought there was no need to show courtesy. That is where the farmer was very much mistaken, for there is just as much need for “good manners” as in a country farmhouse or shack as in marble hulls. Perhaps in a generation more we shall be more particular in this matter of tracking outside mud and dust into our houses. 

In countries of the orient it would be regarded as the height of rudeness not to leave the shoes in the vestibule, and either wear slippers or go in the stocking feet. In one of the largest department stores recently built in Tokyo, with all the ear marks of a thriving American department store, customers check their shoes at the door and would consider it boorish to do otherwise. Careful people everywhere avoid tracking mud into the house. Considerate home guests always exchange street shoes for house shoes if they are to be indoors for any length of time. 

In most homes it is enough for a man to exchange street shoes for comfortable slippers or Oxfords when he is home, but in more formal establishments, easy slippers would be reserved only for ore’s room or for bachelor quarters. In that case, pumps would be considered the correct indoor evening footwear. – Mary Marshall Duffee, 1917

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