A question of taste

Matthew Parris on men's footwear (here):

As a boy I was told by my Oxbridge headmaster in Swaziland that in England a gentleman never wears brown shoes with a grey or blue suit in town.
... I have tried, however shabbily, to stick to that. But I’m noticing that in today’s London very respectable people indeed – better-dressed than me – are beginning to wear brown shoes with any suit. Was I wrong, I asked a smart friend, James Landale, of BBC News 24? James’s brow furrowed.
“The question doesn’t arise,” he said. “One doesn’t wear brown shoes at all.”

Indeed.