Smelly Sockless Loafers and Other Libels

I yield to no one in my disdain for metrosexual fashion trends. But the UK’s Daily Mail beclowns itself with this headline:

Metrosexual trend for wearing loafers with no socks causes surge in fungal foot infections

If Daily Mail writer Rachel Reilly really (heh) thinks sockless loafer wearage is metrosexual, she doesn’t know her ass from her elbow. Sockless loafers are the mark of the preppy. Thus was it written in The Official Preppy Handbook (1980):

Gucci loafers. Black. Glove-soft leather. Worn at the country club, never with socks.

Reilly’s article also repeats the canard that the sockless mode results in stinky feet. Take it from me—a smell scientist and lifelong sockless fan of Sperry Top-Siders (muni links kid, not country club)—that’s a lot of hooey.