If I could have only one color shoe, I think it would be a dark chocolate brown like the late Alexis, Baron de Rédé's tassels in the photograph. As you know, the Baron, whose life epitomized the saying “All I want is the best of everything, and there’s very little of that left,” had several hundred pair of shoes made by Anthony Cleverley, estranged contemporary of George.
Some of what remains of the Baron's footwear collection is housed at London's George Cleverley today. For all his complexity, the Baron was a simple man when it came to his shoes. A hundred or more identical pair of evening shoes. Dozens of black imitation brogues (the shoe to covet if you are ever in need of another pair of black oxfords). And as many pigskin tassels.
The workings of a mind that would maintain an inventory of a hundred pair of identical bespoke evening shoes is incomprehensible to me but I do admire such single-mindedness. It reminds me of the fellow who owned dozens of identical navy blue suits, and the Parisian gentleman whose necktie wardrobe is comprised entirely of solid navy blue neckties. And there is a take-away lesson here. The contrarian approach to the pursuit of variety in one's wardrobe is to own multiples of a few effective combinations so that they can be worn often but still rotated properly. Clothing as uniform.
In other words, choose one and repeat.
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3 comments:
Well, that is the 'Way of the Grey Flannel Suit', military uniforms and the like. One can be well-dressed without putting out any thought, and I did appreciate the idea for some twenty-nine years. Still, it isn't an approach I would chose today.
This reminds me very much of Dr. Cornel West talking about his uniform:
http://putthison.com/post/629004164/drwest
Whoa! Got an acute bout of vertigo watching that clip!
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