The Times has kicked off the Tory Culture Wars for 2023 with an Editorial (2nd Jan) that bemoans the lack of shoes which are properly shined as part of a respectable public dress sense.
It notes that a principal purveyor of shoe shine Kiwi has withdrawn from the UK market due to lack of demand.
The problem is that for many, wearers of sharp suits and shiny shoes appear to be not respectable but dodgy. Hence where I work in the City of London neither suits or shiny shoes are seen as much as they were. People may well be dodgy but they dont want to advertise by appearance.
The only pair of shoes I now own that warrant shining are a pair of steel toe capped Doc Martens but they come out only rarely these days.
Checking Raph Samuel’s The Lost World of British Communism for historical perspectives on the footwear of the left I find that CP members were expected to wear sensible shoes and those who wore suede shoes were regarded generally as ‘morally suspect’. No doubt The Times in 2023 would agree
Leave a Reply