Shoes Sans Laces
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
27 March 2026
A few days ago, an army officer friend of mine forwarded an invite from a premier Army establishment in the country. There was a clear instruction on the card: 'Please come formally dressed and wear shoes with laces.' This intrigued and amused me at the same time. Shoes with laces have a dignified appearance and they enhance a person's personality by several notches.
A man's outer persona is judged by three things that he carries or doesn't carry: A classy wristwatch, a nice pen and a pair of polished shoes with laces. Shoes, however expensive they may be, don't look classy without laces. Many British- era clubs in India still don't allow entry to those who don't wear shoes and even if they wear, if shoes are without laces, they're politely stopped at the entrance by the sentry. People may call it a colonial hangover, but if you look at a man who's wearing a pair of shoes without laces, you'll also feel that he appears very casual and frivolous.
Francois Gautier, the former South Asia correspondent for the French daily, Le Figaro, wrote that shoes without laces were made for the people who were so lazy that they had no time to tie the laces. So very true. This underlines a person's casual attitude and approach to life. The government offices in all the Scandinavian countries categorically instruct their staff to wear shoes with laces. If they don't follow the instructions, they're sent back home. Laced shoes came nearly five hundred years ago and were worn by the soldiers, so that they couldn't fall while brandishing swords on horseback. The soldiers of the Nordic Army of King James had to wear shoes with laces and they got the idea from the French people, especially French soldiers, who were always sartorially advanced and streets ahead of others.
Napoleon Bonaparte, the diminutive great, would always wear shoes with laces and polish them himself. Even at St Helena, he wore shoes with laces despite the English prison-doctor Samuel Gray advising him to wear loose shoes because of his constant ankle pain. That's the reason armies all over the world stick to the old dictum that officers wear shoes with laces. Not only officers, all those men and esp. alpha-men must wear a pair of polished shoes with laces or Pamela Anderson will say, ' Men who wear shoes without laces are men clumsy enough to forget the rubbers while meeting their girlfriends.' Remember the sage advice from one of the most gorgeous women the world has ever seen. Guys, are you listening?
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/shoes-sans-laces-/d/139423
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