And are there any rules against wearing brown shoes with blue pants?

During the 12 years I lived in London, my banker friends often recited a rule to me: “No brown shoes in town”, meaning no brown shoes to work. This axiom originated in Victorian times, when gentlemen went hunting at weekends or paraded around the valleys of their country estates in brown shoes and boots to match the brown dirt.

When they returned to the office for the workday, they would trade their brown shoes for polished black, matching their belts and shoes, the better to continue the unbroken line of their suits—and to signal their white-collar status. The presence of brown shoes in town thus became a statement of class and nation, as other nationalities, notably the Italians and the French, never adhered to exactly the same dress code.

However, like most dress codes of yore, this one has pretty much fallen by the wayside, a victim of casual-Friday-ization of the everyday and the demise of the suit and tie. After all, when your jacket and pants no longer match, it’s not a big deal when your shoes don’t match either. In fact, it kind of makes sense, especially if the vibe you’re going for is relaxed.

Compared to the rise of the sneaker as a dress shoe—and not just sneakers, but truly bizarre Frankenstein sneakers—the brown shoe doesn’t seem shocking, but authoritative.

Since the menswear shows in Paris are happening as I write this, I thought I’d ask our guy on the scene, Jacob Gallagher, what he saw.

“A lot of the pairings that used to be ‘wrong’,” he responded. “Like a black coat with blue chinos and brown shoes. Those combinations are acceptable now because they make you look twice, but they’re not really that fancy.

With so many dress codes broken now, he notes, “wearing a once-tedious color scheme is neater and more interesting to look at than wearing a panda backpack or a down jacket in the shape of a mutant macaroni.” (None of these are theoretical options, by the way; he just saw them.)

Jacobs also blamed social media for the glitch, noting that rules like “don’t wear brown shoes with black pants” are practically catnip for the Instagram generation. It’s an establishment provocation, he said, that practically begs for an “eight-slide post on why ‘non’ color combinations are actually great because they draw attention.”

That’s the thing about even the tiniest choices, like brown shoes with blue pants: They’ll draw attention. Someone might notice and make a comment. So you need to be prepared.