The Rebirth of Formal Shoes

After flirting with sneakers for a few years men are going back to formal shoes, but this time, comfort is as important as style

- Magandeep Singh

• Belgian loafers: This is similar in style as above; it shows a bit more upper foot-cleavage, but nothing that will get you labelled an exhibitionist. Same above-cited homegrown brands do great (even tasseled) ones, but add to them the "Sagan' shoe by Baudoin & Lange, which is almost a style unto itself.

Did you know that even as we, as a species, sat at home for most of the last two years, we still kept buying a lot of shoes? Strange behaviour considering that most of us weren't really going anywhere but the short travel between the living room (now fashioned into an office) and the bedroom (now fashioned into a bunker). But shoes were among the most searched products online and, just to give you an idea of the magnitude of the trade, even the middlemen (resellers) of the industry did billions of dollars' worth of business.

But it was mostly sneakers; formal shoes, like skinny jeans, had to deal with the existential question - Do they serve any purpose? Is anybody really comfortable in them? Why do we even have them, then?