Are Open-toed Shoes Appropriate Business Attire?

Until the summer of 2002, I thought wearing open-toed shoes was fashion forward. Now I know its a corporate taboo.

I had no idea that by baring my toes, I was sending messages I might not want to send. I was not aware that wearing open-toed shoes to work was tantamount to flying the wrong flag.

A friend, who’s a banking industry consultant, was the first to inform me she would never wear open-toed shoes on a client call.

“ Why not?” I asked naively.

“Well,” she started, trying to be diplomatic, “the banking industry is conservative. The women all wear pumps.”

It reminded me of when I was 11 years old and living in a small town in Appalachia. We were “imported Yankees,” and often not aware of local custom. Being unaware, my family thought it was perfectly fine for me to walk home from school.

But, I found out differently. One day I asked my friend Beth to join me. She asked her mother, who firmly said, “No. Ladies don’t walk.”

Some 40 years later I learn ladies don’t wear open-toed shoes to work. Where have I been?

My friend Janie works for a private college with a written policy forbidding open-toed shoes unless you are wearing pantyhose or socks. Now that’s a fashion statement.

Just this week, Target Corporation announced it was initiating a 20 page dress code for all employees it includes such details as where open-toed shoes can be worn.

Now, if you go into any shoe department in any department store, chances are you are going to find a lot of open-toed shoes. Somehow, shoe designers must not be aware nor care that in corporate America, open -toed shoes can be “distracting.” Some say the taboo is based on grooming concerns, but others say the problem is open-toed shoes make a woman’s foot look sexy. That's right. Women who wear open-toed shows are telling the world they think " I'm too sexy for myself."

How serious is the open-toed shoe controversy? Well, even Victoria’s Secret’s dress code forbids open-toed shoes in their retail stores.

For emphasis let me repeat. Even Victoria’s Secret forbids open-toed shoes. Yes, the company that is now promoting pink bras and panties with attitude, daring, darling and all about fun forbids employees in their stores to bare their pink pedicures.

What am I missing here?

I've really been struggling with this. I just don't understand the problem with toes. I understand not allowing pants that show cracks when people bend over, I understand not allowing camisoles and I even understand not allowing blue jeans.

However, I really didn't understand the open-toed shoe issue until I read a
passage in Nuala O’Faolain’s best-selling novel, My Dream of You . The main character, Kate, explains why she loves pedicures. According to Kate, painted toes signal how feminine a girl is, deep down, even if she doesn't make any other show of it. In other words even when she's in a Talbot Navy Blue Suit with matching navy pumps.

Finally, I have a theory. The open-toe controversy isn’t about grooming. Or being sexy. It’s about femininity. Corporate America prefers women in pumps because Corporate America still prefers to deal with women who choose not to show how feminine they are…deep down.

Image Credit: Flickr member Hakimonooohi. Image added August 2007.

Question: Is the open-shoed controversy simply American-centric or is this a world-wide phenomenon? let me know!

Tags: business, fashion, women's issues

 

 

Comments

[Bellman]

Another data point:

In Carl Hiaasen's recent novel "Basket Case," the male, newspaper reporter protagonist is constantly butting heads with his very professional but much younger female editor. That is, until one day he sees a break in her professional veneer: painted toenails! It completely alters their relationship.

[Yvonne DiVita]

Hear, hear! Several years ago...in my 'employee' days, I worked at a telemarketing firm...oh, excuse me, it was phone sales, not telemarketing, and women were told NOT to wear open-toed shoes because they weren't professional. Well, as Linda Ellerbee says when it comes to trusting men and their opinion on how to dress, "How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a little noose around your neck?"

[DL]

In most places where I have faced a dress code specifically forbidding open-toe shoes, it was a safety issue. Toes break with surprising ease, when something heavy (like a box of bras) is dropped on them.

I would also say that an open-toed shoe is not per se forbidden, even in my very conservative field, though a sandal-type shoe would absolutely be unacceptable. However, I do think that wearing a suit without pantyhose is unacceptable, wearing pantyhose with open-toed shoes is unacceptable, therefore, open-toed shoes are de facto unacceptable.

[Mike P.]

Open-toed shoes are called "sandals". To prevent women from wearing sandals, businesses just ban footwear having the essence of sandals: open toes.

Women's dress is a perennial problem at most workplaces. Let's face it. Human Resources managers know the drill. They know exactly what will happen when they relax the hard-and-fast rules and rely on common sense: skirts that "shrink" up to her crotch, shirttails that "shrink" until they are just below her nipples, and underwear that "shrinks" until it is no more than a silken thread of dental floss traversing her posterior.

If women could keep their business discreetly covered during working hours we wouldn't need rules like "no open-toed footwear". Unfortunately, that is next to impossible with twenty-something female office workers. As so many womens magazines remind her year-round, every workplace is a place to score a boyfriend or husband by tarting it up a bit.

[DK]

I think the whole open toe ban is silly. I have had to write reports on dress rules, and you should see some of them I have read:

*Some places allow open toe OR open back shoes, but not both.

*An employee cannot show more than 2 toes without wearing pantyhose.

*Cannot wear thong style sandals unless there are at least one other piece to the shoe other than the strap holding the thong.

*Cannot wear thong sandals unless the shoe as at least a 2 inch heel on it. Sandals with a ring around the toe is fine.

These rules make no real sense. It is strange how places worry so much about these shoe rules, yet it's perfectly acceptable to have your shoes off & work at your desk without them on.

[Tammi]

Great site. Found you via showcase.

This subject is one I have fought for years. Before I moved south I worked in Chicago. Insurance and then sales. Both had very strict dress codes and no open toe shoes.

Then I moved to Florida. I was in steel sales and in and out of the car constantly. I had to dress "business" not business casual, corp. business. Let me just say, getting in and out of a car 12-18 times a day when it's 90 degrees in the shade with suit, panty hose and closed toed shoes on is a bit over whelming. I fought the rule, I lost, but I had to have my say.

Now I'm still in sales but now as a Mfg. Rep calling on retail stores. Some are very formal, some are just business casual. I wear open toe shoes and no panty hose. None. Not until around Dec. If you see me in panty hose and pumps you know I'm meeting with a very big wig.

The rule of closed/open toe shoes makes me crazy. I understand the need, as mentioned above - people will push the envelope. But that doesn't mean I have to like it!

[Nina Nancy]

Hey it all pleasure and fun and both open & closed go togather with me depending upon where I am and what realy I am up too.

At work I go closed and peekoboo every now and than makes me and a few happy and a couple likes with out socks, or hose.

I go open where I want to please my self and others with or without paint.

Its all about when, where, why, who and how!!!

GO CLOSED...GO OPEN.....or GO BARE but beware the time and the place needs to be right not only for U .....for them as well.

NN

[Karen Yaeger]

I wear fisherman's sandals (covered toe sandals), and some people still insist they are open-toed sandals! Goodness, you'd think I was going topless!

[connie]

i agree with Tammi and Nina Nancy.Opentoes rule. I work for the city,now in an office. We can wear opentoe pumps. Peeptoes with or without hose. Anything showing more toes requires hose. There are only 3 other females who work inside. Lets face it men love seeing womens pretty toes and feet. I never wear closedtoe heels. When i drove my big truck before i moved to an office i was required to wear dresses and highheels.And if i got out of the truck on a job i had to switch to work boots. the reason for the dress and heels was 1, incase a big wig came on site. I enjoyed that very much. open toes rule.

[David]

I stumbled across this thread, and found it amusing...and had to add my comments.

First, DL above had a very good point - many places require closed toe shoes for safety reasons. Having worked in numerous types of environments, stubbed, crushed or otherwise injured toes is not something found only in a warehouse environment! It happens in any setting, and given the cost of workplace injuries and such, it is an employer's repsonbility to both the employee, and the owners/shareholders of a company, to ensure every safety precaution is taken.

On another note (yes, I realize this is probably going to irritate some of the ladies out there), I had to laugh when reading Tammi's post - complaining about how hot she gets when wearing a suit and close toe choes, getting in and out of the car for sales calls. For crying out loud...what do you think men do? I have never, ever seen (and pray I never do!) a man wear a business suit...and a pair of sandals! Me wear pants, socks and closed toe shoes every day - so complaining about the heat will never win any points with me!

Having said all that, I will say that outside of work, I love to see women wearing open toe shoes - especially when they take care of their feet, get pedicures, etc. But in most workplace settings, it is just not practical.

[shoe stretchers]

If you were going to buy a golf club, you wouldn't walk into a store and buy the first one you see, would you? Of course

not; especially if you want to improve your golf game! You'll want to hold the club, take some practice swings, hit some

balls if the store has a practice spot, and look at the price, of course. If you are considering buying running shoes,

you need to go through a similar process and take the time to find the perfect shoe.