Hart Tan Beige Spat Derby

Product Description

A wedding? A party? These very cool tan beige spat derbys are just the ticket for the flamboyant or vintage lover of shoes. Why are they called spats? Well, they could be called other styles of shoes which we will come to in a minute but the original idea was to have a piece of material covering the shoes to protect from mud on the streets (known as spatterdash). Of course, this was the reserve of the wealthy and so denoted status and money. Over the century, the idea of these being linked to wealth was appropriated by mobsters and the two tone shoe fell out of favour with the upper classes. See this article for more. Some might say the origins of these brown beige two tone shoes are in spectator shoes. These were a creation of John Lobb in response to cricket shoes being white and getting dirty. He used black at the toe and heel to combat this and so this shoe was born. Of course, the jazz scene in the 20s and 30s had a huge impact on style. People were experimenting and fashion became more accessible so various classes could wear mens two tone shoes which are pretty flamboyant. The well to do began to distance themselves from the two tone shoe as they considered it vulgar. Lets face it, the other name for this shoe: co-respondent (named after those going to court) was not really something to aspire to! The Duke of Windsor put an end to that as he loved wearing them and made them become an acceptable form of footwear at the time. Of course there is a renaissance of all things vintage and this tan beige derby spat is a lovely echo of a very colourful past.