The Choosy Beggar

Literally, the only thing you need is an Abercrombie & Fitch shopping bag! For added effect, consider more Abercrombie & Fitch shopping bags, heavy cologne, a street map or three, a small European family, a general unfamiliarity with your present surroundings, Gucci loafers, etc. You’re welcome!

It’s great to see a solid, time-tested shoe like the wingtip get its due. And, despite the headline, “Wingtips: Beloved, Classic and Now Trendy” (the first two will do, thanks), we love how The Times handles their present popularity. In its new “Trading Up” column — which “takes a fresh look at fashion’s classics” — reporter David Coleman explains how men “gravitate to things, especially classic British things, that confer a barely, but crucially, discernible drop of cool, like the faintest trace of vermouth in a martini … Like the wingtip.” Also, as Coleman notes and more men are learning, wingtips aren’t the least bit priggish or dainty. On the contrary, “They originated in Ireland and Scotland, rough shoes made of double thicknesses of leather to withstand a trudge through the countryside,” writes Coleman. “They were more or less the Crocs of the 18th century.”