Edwardian man in Mary Jane shoes. RPPC. Private Collection.
Harris Norris. University of Virginia
I did a double take on this one. Look at this cheeky gentleman! While today these shoes are exclusively worn by women and girls, I read on (the always reliable *cough cough*) wiki some pre-WWI men wore them too, but apart from this photo I have yet to see evidence of this and I’ve seen many. I believe that if some did indeed wear them, the shoes were never popular with gentlemen. By the time this image was taken the name of Mary Jane was already in use. I think the university student was being humorous by wearing ladies shoes! He’s smiling in that “what do you think of this?” sort of way. This was taken in the mid 1910s, seeing the pants cuffs.
RPPC: AZO 1904-1918
Bowlers And High Collars 
June 8th, 2015 at 1:32 am
Interesting about the MJ’s, I found this links and it would seem that it was quite common in Germany for men to wear the strap shoes https://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070623145943AAwcbxy
The finger up to the ear, are you sure that he isn’t an aspiring folk singer ;-)
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June 8th, 2015 at 12:06 pm
Hm maybe. When I come across another picture that shows as much I will be sure to post it. I’ve seen them in boys but no adults so far. I don’t know if your link has a picture. It’s not showing from the app.
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June 8th, 2015 at 12:07 pm
There is a picture of a German chap chopping wood wearing a pair of MJ’s
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June 8th, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Interesting! Will check it when I get to my desktop.
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June 8th, 2015 at 12:24 pm
Ok, saw the picture! His strap shoes have no heels, but in the case of this RPPC I think the chap was being funny; the heels are too high for them being men shoes, and this was taken in the U.S. Some men shoes had higher heels though.
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June 8th, 2015 at 1:02 pm
Perhaps it was his “coming out” picture 😉
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June 8th, 2015 at 4:53 pm
Guys like to joke dressing like women. Per the many examples I already posted, and by personal experience LOL
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July 8th, 2017 at 7:08 pm
shoes such as these were offered for sale the Sears catalog in the early 1900s…..not once but a number of times.
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