Product Code Database
The spectator shoe, also known as co-respondent shoe, is a style of low-heeled, Oxford shoe, semi-brogue or full brogue constructed from two contrasting colours, typically having the toe and heel cap and sometimes the lace panels in a darker colour than the main body of the shoe. This style of shoe dates from the nineteenth century but reached the height of popularity during the 1920s and 1930s.
In the 1920s and 1930s in England, this style was considered too flamboyant for a gentleman, and therefore was called a tasteless style. Because the style was popular among and cads, who were sometimes associated with divorce cases, a nickname for the style was co-respondent shoe, a pun on the colour arrangement on the shoe, and because "co-respondent" is the legal description of a third party caught in flagrante delicto with the guilty party in a case of adultery. Wallis Simpson was famed for wearing this style, although it was said that she was an adulteress and that it was Edward VIII who acted the part of co-respondent. World Wide Words: co-respondent shoes
In the 1992 film Hoffa, Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito were supplied with spectators from Wisconsin shoemaker Allen Edmonds (specifically the Broadstreet model).
In the 1920s-set crime drama, Boardwalk Empire, the character Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, can be seen wearing tan-and-black spectators, especially in the opening credits sequence.
In Vikram Seth's novel and television adaptation A Suitable Boy, Haresh Khanna is a manager of a shoe factory who is disparaged for his 'co-respondent shoes'.
In Doctor Who, the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) wore a pair of spectator shoes.
In the 2020 film Tenet, Neil can be seen wearing spectator shoes.
In Kate Atkinson's 2022 novel Shrines of Gaity, set in 1926 London, the character Landor wears co-respondent shoes.
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