c. 1955

Man's Shoes

By the late 1940s, men's blue suede shoes were advertised as "a refreshing change from tiresome black or brown." The style achieved iconic status in early 1956 with the release of one of the first rock-and-roll hits "Blue Suede Shoes," written and recorded by Carl Perkins and covered the same year by Elvis Presley. Although etiquette arbiter Emily Post declared that a man of taste never wore them, blue suede shoes became a teenage fad. A darker, laced version was more usual, however—the wearer of these baby blue slip-ons would have been especially careful not to have his shoes stepped on.