41 thoughts on “>boss sat me down and forbade me from wearing brown shoes with a navy trousers to work because apparently 'no brown in town'

  1. Anonymous says:

    Back in the days when people travelled by horse you’d sometimes get a fleck of shit on your shoes or clothes… or so much dust it turned your clothes brown. So coming in the big city with brown on you meant you were a dirty stupid farm boy, and your boss don’t want none of that because it’s bad for business.
    Now get them black shoes, busboy.

    • Anonymous says:

      unless your job demands a very very formal dress code, this rule is nonsense, and is right about the story (it is just an outdated convention outside of formality)

      […]
      I work as a bank clerk in rural Germany and it’s the same here, I’d absolutely get into trouble if I wore brown oxfords.
      Hell when I applied they specifically mentioned the dress code, it’s just normal.

      it isnt normal for most jobs that arent important

      • Anonymous says:

        It isn’t normal for most jobs period.

        […]
        I work as a bank clerk in rural Germany and it’s the same here, I’d absolutely get into trouble if I wore brown oxfords.
        Hell when I applied they specifically mentioned the dress code, it’s just normal.

        Bank clerk isn’t a minimum wage job like it is in Burgerland?

        • Anonymous says:

          >Bank clerk isn’t a minimum wage job like it is in Burgerland?
          Not sure how it’s in Murrka but we also do consultations and handle appointments to give advice on "simpler" financial matters.
          To get into it you usually have the 3.5 years of schooling and practical experience you get through an apprenticeship at a bank and then transition right into fulltime employ by them.
          Pay is very good for something that doesn’t require university/college level education.

          • Anonymous says:

            >Not sure how it’s in Murrka but we also do consultations and handle appointments to give advice on "simpler" financial matters.
            It’s the same in Burgerland, except the pay isn’t good and it doesn’t require any education, if some experience. Oh, and the "advice" mostly consists of trying to sell the bank’s products to people who don’t want, need, or can even really afford them.

        • Anonymous says:

          I live in a Trump county in the Midwest and I’ve never seen this rule about no brown shoes until now. His outfit would be considered classy here.

          • Anonymous says:

            It’s a British/Japanese/Northern Euro thing. Boomer Americans, especially in the NE, come from an Anglo-influenced culture of formal dress, so it bled in a bit there as well.

            Black has until recently in such codes been reserved for servants, waitstaff, funeral director types. It’s only taken 50 odd years of black being cool and edgy for attitudes to shift. Brooks Brothers didn’t make black suits until the mid ’00s, for instance.

            Yeah, it’s mostly not followed in flyover country outside of larger international kinds of cities. Or maybe law offices.

  2. Anonymous says:

    sounds like you should tell hr you heard your boss say something about not wanting browns in town. Thank me later op

      • Anonymous says:

        lol small ones have HR that is either hecking the boss and/or are actively covering for him. Oh wait, the latter is all HR lmfao.

  3. Anonymous says:

    This is just normal ettiquette in suit dress codes in Europe, only yankoids get this wrong.
    If your job requires a suit you wear black shoes. Only with business casual and below you can wear brown shoes.

    • Anonymous says:

      pretty sure this sort of snobbery is exclusive to London’s financial district, no one else gives a shit.

      • Anonymous says:

        I mean this is etiquette everywhere. Here in the Netherlands this is also the case. You can just tell if a guy is from a good family by how he ties his tie or which colour shoe he uses.

        Don’t get me wrong, I love brown shoes. Just not during the job. Wear them in (business) casual outfits or with casual suits. Why would you want to wear brown shoes under a charcoal or navy suit anyway, it looks bad.

          • Anonymous says:

            >All that means is you’ve been colonized by London’s classism.
            Leftypol please leave

        • Anonymous says:

          >Why would you want to wear brown shoes under a charcoal or navy suit anyway, it looks bad.
          Brown is fine with those colors. Brown shoes is like a white shirt, you can combine them with almost everything.

          • Anonymous says:

            I don’t understand why yanks fetishize brown so much, particularly in trousers and footwear.

          • Anonymous says:

            Yeah I agree. Just not with suits.
            This is only a recent development too, since people nowadays consider any shoe that isnt a sneaker ‘formal’. If you look at pictutes of the 90s and before rarely do people wear brown shoes with a suit that isn’t a casual suit

          • Anonymous says:

            if we’re going by old time standards then all modern suits are casual suits, being derived from the casual lounge suit.
            formal wear was morning dress and tuxedo dress.

        • Anonymous says:

          While some jobs and business settings require black shoes, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wearing brown shoes with a regular suit. People did it all the time even back in the day, not at their job, but brown Oxfords or Derby’s absolutely do go with a regular suit.

      • Anonymous says:

        This is just normal ettiquette in suit dress codes in Europe, only yankoids get this wrong.
        If your job requires a suit you wear black shoes. Only with business casual and below you can wear brown shoes.

        I work as a bank clerk in rural Germany and it’s the same here, I’d absolutely get into trouble if I wore brown oxfords.
        Hell when I applied they specifically mentioned the dress code, it’s just normal.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Are you an Englishman, anon? Because the idea that brown shoes are only for the country estate is literally a 19th century English thing.

  5. Anonymous says:

    It’s pretty common knowledge, a lot of people and companies just don’t give a shit so outside of very conservative and formal districts it’s not heavily enforced.

  6. Anonymous says:

    >boss sat me down and forbade me from wearing brown shoes with a navy trousers to work because apparently ‘no brown in town’
    Never heard of this one anon. What country are you in?

  7. Anonymous says:

    When a new guy comes into the office on his first day wearing brown shoes, the boys organize a hot dog or burger lunch and one of them takes a little piece of his morning shit and puts it on the new guy’s burger, little bit of an initiation ritual

  8. Anonymous says:

    London and Japan are the only two places where no brown in town rule might fly.

    In Italy almost nobody wears black shoes and they have the best dressers around.

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