[LifeStyle] Can a man wear mules to work?

[Mr.BaZzAr]

 

Jian DeLeon, the menÕs fashion and editorial director at Nordstrom and co-founder of Mule Boyz, a wry Instagram account dedicated to the footwear, at his home in New York. For many men, the gussied-up slippers are becoming a shoe for (almost) all occasions. (Isak Tiner/The New York Times)
Written by Jamie Waters

While some folks have sprinted out of lockdown keen to make up for lost time, a number of men have, er, shuffled back onto the streets. They are ambling, dawdling and slouching to lunches, drinks and work meetings, powered by insouciance rather than haste.

They are on mule time. Their feet are shod in clogs, sabots, backless loafers, espadrilles with crushable heels and various other iterations of shoes with a covered toe and open back. All come under the mule umbrella and, owing to their front-heavy form, beget slow movement.

ALSO READ |Spring fashion: Men, do you have these wardrobe essentials?
“The mule is a shoe of leisure,” said Noah Thomas, a fashion editor and co-founder of Mule Boyz, a wry Instagram account dedicated to the footwear. “It’s for standing, posing and chilling. You can’t run, so you have to be relaxed; that’s where the sense of luxury comes in.”

Men’s heels — naked and socked — have never been so conspicuous. For while women’s mules have been po[CENSORED]r for decades, the men’s “mulement” (thank the Mule Boyz for that term) has only recently shifted from cult status to mainstream prominence.

Simmering since 2015, when Gucci introduced its fur-lined Princetown mules, it took a big step forward during the pandemic, when countless guys lived in Birkenstock’s Boston clogs, Crocs or actual slippers. When taking out the trash was the day’s longest trip, tying laces became entirely out of the question. Mules — cozy, comfy, easily slipped into — held the answers.

Now, as mules’ image expands beyond associations with domestic torpor, men from Manhattan to Tokyo are wondering whether they can be a shoe for every occasion.

There’s a buffet of styles to choose from. Marni’s fuzzy lime-green sabots recall the Grinch’s foot; ASAP Rocky has designed flame-emblazoned backless Vans; and Fear of God has created an EVA-foam mule as smooth as a pebble.

MEN mules
Noah Thomas, a fashion editor and co-founder of Mule Boyz, a wry Instagram account dedicated to the footwear, in Los Angeles. (Alex Welsh/The New York Times)
Dressier versions abound: Martine Rose sells square-toe snakeskin models; Thom Browne makes penny loafer mules; and, with its buckled strap and stacked heel, the bestselling Camion from the Swedish label Our Legacy has been likened to a cowboy boot chopped in half.

“The great thing about a mule right now is that there’s an ease to it, but at the same time you can conceptually dress it up,” said Jonathan Anderson, creative director of JW Anderson and Loewe. He did just that with the JW Anderson chain loafer mules, black leather slip-ons furnished with an enormous sculptural gold chain that was a mid-2020 hit.

Zhooshed-up designs are resonating with male shoppers. According to Lyst, an online platform that aggregates data from more than 17,000 brands and stores, searches for “leather mules” and “suede mules” are up by 151% this year compared to 2020. At the luxury e-retailer MatchesFashion, which has recorded triple-digit growth in men’s mules in the last 12 months, they’re becoming a po[CENSORED]r alternative to sneakers.

“The sneaker has been such a dominant shoe for men, but you do have that guy that wants to move on — but he still wants an elevated casual shoe,” said Damien Paul, head of menswear at Matches. Occupying a sweet spot between a loafer and a slipper, mules are the shoe that fits.

Although this trend may be new, men’s relationship with mules is not. They were donned by the Romans (“mule” comes from mulleus calceus, the name for patricians’ red slippers) and by the Sun King Louis XIV, who pranced around in a vertiginous pair, according to the Margo DeMello work “Feet and Footwear.” By the 19th century, however, it became “scandalous” to expose one’s heel in public, DeMello writes, and mules were confined to bedrooms.

ALSO READ |Crocs are becoming the ‘it-shoe’ of pandemic fashion
Centuries on, some still find them unsavory. “A lot of people don’t want to see any part of a man’s foot,” Thomas said. “They’re like, ‘Ugh, why are we promoting something that’s going to make a man leave his house with his heel out?’”

Nonetheless, the menswear community’s general embrace of mules indicates how much things have progressed in the last decade, said Jian DeLeon, the men’s fashion and editorial director at Nordstrom and the other Mule Boyz founder. Notably, the shoes’ appeal comes from flirting with the boundaries of good taste rather than with potential suitors. Where menswear once revolved around “looking better when you’re out dating, now it’s about being into the gear for yourself,” DeLeon said.

His girlfriend, he added, “hates” mules on men. He has more than 30 pairs.

That’s