Shoes, Dresses And The Culture Of It

Valerie Steele, chief curator of the Fashion Institutehowever, use their shoes to distinguish themselves
of Technology and editor of Fashion Theory: Thefrom the grey herd of job applicants.
Journal of Body, Dress & Culture, told the ChronicleAndrew Ross, NYU's American Studies' program
of Higher Education that, in her opinion, "Academicsdirector, is famous for the clothes he wore to
are still the worst-dressed middle-class occupationalaccompany his wedge-heeled suede shoes to the
group in America." With a challenge like that,Modern Language Association's 1991 meeting. Jane
professors fight back as hard as they can. PrincetonGallop, professor of English and comparative literature
University's Elaine Showalter, feminist literary critic,at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee,
confessed to Vogue magazine that she had a passioncoordinates her fashion statements to her intellectual
for fashion, and that she defended her Ph.D.work, as the lecture when she wore cowboy boots
dissertation in turquoise boots from Bologna. "Forand suede fringed pants to discuss Western
years," she openly admitted, "I've been trying t makecivilization.
the life of the mind coexist with a day at the mall."And some who work in universities find that the
But some, in fighting the widely held stereotype thatshoes they wear make long-standing alliances on
professors only wear old dirty tweeds and flatcampus. Diane Ballard first joined the staff of the
shoes, may take their sartorial commitment too far.University of Tennessee in 1969, and the first time
Emily Toth, professor of English and women's studiesshe met Joe Johnson (later to become UT president)
at Louisiana State University, who moonlights as Ms.she was wearing red and blue shoes with a blocky
Mentor for the Chronicle, confessed that she onceheel, a high-cut tongue, and a undulating swirling
saw a woman interview for an academic job inpattern in which the red overlaid the blue.
cowboy boots and a red-taffeta dress. Some,