The joy of socks: why we’re all taking off our shoes now to fight those germs

Shoes inside or outside? It’s a long-running debate, and those in favor of removal appear to be winning – thanks to greater awareness of germs. British and American etiquette are derived from Asian and Scandinavian culture, as guests increasingly leave their shoes at the door at dinner parties and house parties.

Experts attribute the change to younger people being increasingly aware of germs. Gabriel Filippelli, a professor of earth sciences at Indiana University, says the first time he encountered this was with his son and his girlfriend, who live in Chicago and have a shoe ban at home. “Friends’ children have this too. I think it was inspired by a greater realization that the bottoms of your shoes are really dirty. He now also has a strict take-off-shoes-at-the-door policy.

There is certainly some justification for it, especially in cities. “What can be entered and tracked on shoes ranges from E coli and heavy metals such as lead to petrochemicals, oils and lubricants,” he says.

According to Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, a study of people’s shoes found that 95% of the shoes contained fecal bacteria on the bottom and one-third contained E. coli. He says people walk on dog poop all the time without realizing it.

Ben, 31, has been to two parties at friends’ homes in Hackney, east London, in recent weeks. At both events there was a gentle reminder to take off shoes and a large pile of shoes at the door. “It was the first time I was at a party with about forty people, as opposed to a meeting where everyone was on their toes.”

He says he preferred that. “It was so much fun. Often everyone wears really nice shoes for these kinds of things and when you see all those people you may have only met through work standing in their socks in the kitchen, you feel more comfortable talking to each other. It was like people didn’t have their armor on.”

Behavior changes and Gerba thinks the pandemic has made people more aware of germs. Filippelli suggests that what we see on social media has an effect. “In many Asian cultures, walking into someone’s home with your shoes on is absolutely not allowed, it is a sign of great disrespect. Young people today are exposed to a more global perspective.”

From a fashion perspective, Leandra Medine Cohen thinks the trend is an opportunity because there are looks that work better when you don’t wear shoes. She recommends wide pants, mini skirts or shorts and tights.

Medine Cohen’s fashion newsletter has over 100,000 subscribers and expertly explains what to buy, where to find it and how to style it. When she recently hosted a dinner party at her Manhattan apartment with New York’s fashion elite, she wore a silver laminated tank top with brown corduroys and… red socks. “It wouldn’t have been the same with shoes!” she says.

Although red socks are a fashion trend that has been on fire this year, it wasn’t just about clothes: all the guests had their feet out too. Nowadays, she says, whether you should take off your shoes is “often a consideration” when you are invited to an event at someone’s home.

It’s even a conversation on top podcasts. Weekly, Throwing passes, a New York-based men’s style podcast, kicks off with the regular “fit check” at the beginning, where guests go through their outfits from head to toe. Saying you are barefoot is not a problem.

Medine Cohen says that The Row, a luxury and trend-setting fashion brand, has “been trying to crack the code on how to wear shoes without looking like you’re wearing shoes for six seasons.” Their sold-out mesh slip-on shoe, which looks more like a structured sock than typical outdoor footwear, retails for £600.

So when you’re thinking about an outfit for your next dinner party, perhaps the most important question, according to Medine Cohen, is: Does this look good with my socks?