Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
They are actually quite comfortable - more so than ghillie brogues which I find leave grooves around my legs where the laces were or if you don't tie them tight enough they slip down and you trip over them.

Here's a picture guaranteed to incense all the "Mary-Jane" police who cry out for tolerance on all other aspects of kilt-wearing -

Here are a couple of pictures you will have seen before -




This second photo/illustration shows a shoe that is similar in style and spirit to the shoes that would have been worn throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. Even at Culloden (if shoes were worn at all).

They are not, however...adamantly not...the same as Mary Janes or the shoes depicted in your first two photos. They are not even, in a technical sense, brogues.

That said, while I may be surprised that you find Mary Janes comfortable, as I said before I have never tried a pair on. One of the first rules that a shoemaker learns is that you have to fit the customer's head before you can fit their feet. From this shoemaker's POV they may seem aesthetically or technically orphaned, but if they fit your head...and your feet...go for it. I would not deny that they are traditional kilt accessories.

But if you took a poll on Mary Janes, I'd definitely vote thumbs down on this one (I did not vote in this poll). That's just my personal opinion though.