Slippers should be worn more than they are currently. They are after all surprisingly versatile if you think about it, unless that is they are the kind that look as though they were hacked from the hide of the woolly mammoth. Those aside, slippers can be worn almost anywhere.
Now I have written in the past about velvet slippers but the choice is hardly limited to those. Indeed, my own preference is for the canvas versions with a finish that looks like suede. Lightweight and more comfortable than their velvet relations, they accompany me on airplanes, entertain guests at home, and, sockless, serve as warm weather drivers. This in addition to their regular duties which routinely find them helping take out the trash and insulating my feet from the cold floors of the laundry (life has not been all champagne and cigars at the ASW manse since She Who Rules determined that if my pajamas truly must be cold water washed on the delicate cycle then the housekeeper would no longer be responsible for laundering them; a change that did at least mean that they are no longer regularly shrunken two sizes).
There is of course some controversy about color. Just as a few traditionalists insist upon black oxfords for town shoes, some men will have nothing but black slippers. Personally, I find brown works better with navy blue pajamas in the morning. I will wear black at night of course, though dark green are visually more interesting and a better complement to gray. And then there is the leopard printed pair, which are particularly nice with linen trousers though I will admit that they sometimes attract puzzled glances at the grocery store (your mileage may vary, depending on the habitués of the grocery in your neighborhood).
Slippers should be worn more than they are, really.
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6 comments:
Do you see a distinction between 'slippers' and 'house shoes'? To me, slippers are for wearing to the shower room underneath a bathrobe, whereas house shoes (like those of your illustration by Rubinacci) are typically for wear beneath a pair of casual trousers around the house and I agree can look very smart. Also they do not carry detritus from the outside to the inside. One can change into them at the porch. Indeed, some social customs around the world effectively require that. Driving shoes, which are now distinctive, seem to have evolved in the last decade or so and are for the car rather than house shoes, which surely should not venture outside? Woolly mammoth slippers work well for me for the shower room, but the best pair I ever had came as part of the package from a hotel in Belgium. They were made of toweling and I kept wearing and washing them until they wore out.
I absolutely love slippers but like Jonathan, I have a bit of a problem with the idea of bringing 'detritus' into the house. You wear slippers outside?
Cat photo? Cat style?
On the housekeeper front: surely you could avoid the little difficulty over laudering your jimjams by engaging a laundry maid, specifically trained for the purpose? Moreover, she need not be full time; all depending, of course, on how many pairs of jimjams you have.
does anyone know what brand those slippers are in the photograph?
Sorry, I am not gonna wear slippers. Down here in Miami were go bare footed in the house and in flip flops to the super market. My wife once said to me 'you have such nice clothes but you look like a 'balsero'(person who came to the U.S. from Cuba in the 80's on a raft)most of the time'. I told her, 'thank Mr. Goldberg'. Who gave me a job in his clothing store as a kid.
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