Shoes Optional.

Dressed to the nines, and nowhere to go. That seems to be the incongruity of it: cooped up in their home offices, menswear enthusiasts sit with their coffee and laptops, fully suited from the ankle up. But down below, you catch sight of their socked feet—or their bare feet, more rarely—incongruous against the sharpness of the corporate armor. Soft-padded, unshod soles bare for anyone to see. No shoes allowed in the house, after all. To the suit and tie fetish crowd, the intimacy of work from home allows for certain illicit liberties, the revealing of their kinks in ways both subtle and overt.

To me, the most visible version of this is the number of suit and tie guys who suit up but leave their shoes off. Ostensibly, this is to display their socks and to present a tongue-in-cheek version of the home office, playing on the disparity between the corporate uniform and the comfort of his socked feet. Whereas before the sight of a guy's socked feet while suited would have been rare, nowadays we are treated to it a bit more often than otherwise. To those of us who find allure in such details, the show is irresistible.

Many of the suit and tie fetish guys fixate on the tie and the suit itself, regarding the shoes and socks as peripheral. Those of us who focus more on the shoes and socks, though, recognize how erotic the perfect pair of shoes can be, and how easily the lack of shoes can create a sense of vulnerability, relaxation, revealing a kinky erogenous zone to anybody who cares to look.

Perhaps there are ways for us to see the changing of corporate dress codes as a subtle outlet. After all, if everyone else is already dressing however they please, why can't we? And why not leave the shoes off, as well?