An extravagant symbol of a man who can’t hide his true nature

August 28, 2015 4:00 PM

A brief history on Spats, a mostly obsolete fashion accessory
posted by timshel (29 comments total)

I'm too busy swimming in my vault filled with gold coins to even worry about my spats tbh.
posted by GuyZero at 4:04 PM on August 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

Actually, googling some images of Scrooge McDuck, it kind of cracks me up that he wears only spats, without any shoes or pants.
posted by GuyZero at 4:05 PM on August 28, 2015 [16 favorites]

Alright, now I know what spats are. It just so happens 'Spats', the bar on Shattuck Ave in Berkeley, is just about to reopen after deteriorating for the last decade or so.
posted by uraniumwilly at 4:12 PM on August 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

it kind of cracks me up that he wears only spats, without any shoes or pants.

This is how they are truly meant to be worn, as a sort of upper-class fetish item. Before the Hankie Code, there was the Spats Code. Strange but true.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:22 PM on August 28, 2015 [7 favorites]

I think spats are kind of cool. Although I can't help pointing out that Fred Astaire, as pictured with top hat and spats, is not wearing a tuxedo.
posted by slkinsey at 4:27 PM on August 28, 2015

I for one LOVE the look of spats. I don't see them as snobbish or elitist, but rather as simply classy, and I regret that we live in a time where dressing nicely is pretty much a thing of the past. I once worked in management at a movie theater in Illinois, and about twice a month a delightful elderly couple would show up to see a film, and they always dressed to the nines (as was the saying back in the heady days of their youths) in high-quality clothes that were obviously NOT purchased at Sears or J.C. Penny's. They looked exactly as if they had stepped off the stage of some 1930's film, and always received many appreciative stares and positive comments, even from the younger people. He wore spats on some of those occasions, and I remember asking him why. He acknowledged the reasons covered in the article as far as protecting the shoes, which in his case were quite expensive, but also because he just liked the look of it. I asked him if he and his wife were ever accused of showing off or being cultural dinosaurs, and he said that showing off had nothing to do with it...and as far as being dinosaurs, he allowed that he understood the reason some might think so, but that in his day going to the movies was an entirely different social experience than what people today could possibly imagine, and that he'd be damned if he was going to cave in to pressure and treat going out to see a movie the same way as people treat going out to the grocery store. Say what you will, but I kind of wish we could see a return of the days when people took care to look nice, instead of going to Wal Mart in their pajama bottoms. Sigh...
posted by Quasimike at 4:48 PM on August 28, 2015 [17 favorites]

I used to think Letterman wore spats, turns out they're just white dress socks (still cool, just in a different way).
posted by Cosine at 4:56 PM on August 28, 2015

I love spats, but I have a touch of the dandyfoppery myself.
posted by louche mustachio at 5:26 PM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

When I was in my High School Band (oddly the highlight of my high school years), our obnoxiously formal marching uniforms had spats... and cummerbunds... and were made from heavy wool. The faculty bandleader was a great man, but never more courageous than when he told us we were going to two parades in one day... in California desert cities... during a heat wave. We survived. We were judged Best Band in both parades, bringing home two six-foot trophies (that we later waved in the faces of all the Athletic Teams). Then we stripped out of our soaked uniforms in the bus for the trip back... the band from the all-boys school with a drill team from an all-girls school... ah, coming of age memories. Where was I? Oh, yeah, spats. And the girl who told me to keep my spats on...
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:27 PM on August 28, 2015 [6 favorites]

I sleep with my spats on.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:43 PM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

I always associate spats with P.G. Wodehouse's character Bertie Wooster. If I were a British layabout dependent upon inheritance and allowances, I'd consider wearing them!
posted by Agave at 6:07 PM on August 28, 2015

Wow, am I classless. I thought "spats" was just the name for the style of shoe that, it turns out, references the real spats.
posted by 256 at 6:10 PM on August 28, 2015

Spatterdashes!

Yet another item of men's habiliment that transitioned from military necessity to de rigueur fashion.

Not to be confused with leggings, gaiters, puttees, or chaparejos.
 
posted by Herodios at 7:14 PM on August 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Aren't spats still de rigueur for marching bands?
posted by Thorzdad at 7:53 PM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Until today I had always thought Babar was wearing little slippers! But they're spats!
posted by smartyboots at 8:43 PM on August 28, 2015

Iceberg Slim's no-good dad wore spats.
posted by chaz at 10:10 PM on August 28, 2015

Got an old pair of leather shoes with buttoned cloth uppers which mimic dark spatterdashes (origin word for "spats") a transitional fashion popular among all social classes.

Spats may no longer be a thing, but their hardworking cousins, gaiters, are still a winter essential for deep snow in these parts.
posted by kinnakeet at 2:48 AM on August 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

New kitten wears a tuxedo and spats on front feet.... I couldn't help it..
.his name is Bertie Wooster (considered calling him spats). Companion rescue kitten that came the next day is named Jeeves. The majority of people who ask about the new kittens don't know about the Jeeves and Wooster stories, so I have an opportunity to introduce them to the enjoyable series. Wins all around. If I'd named him spats, that would have been a whole different series of conversations.
posted by mightshould at 2:49 AM on August 29, 2015 [6 favorites]

Before the Hankie Code, there was the Spats Code.

Red spat on left foot, green on right: Wishes to receive favors from a scurrilous Welshman.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:57 AM on August 29, 2015 [9 favorites]

This is great, it helps me better understand a very brief scene in one of my favourite books, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, when Francie and Neely are discussing Christmas presents and she has a very incredulous reaction to his request for spats.
posted by like_neon at 4:18 AM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

When trail running I often wear low-topped running gaiters a bit like this that look rather like spats. From now on that's what I'm calling them. I say, fancy a peripatetic constitutional through yon summits?
posted by traveler_ at 4:33 AM on August 29, 2015

I aged out of DCI in like '91 and I'd never once had to wear spats. A shako, yes, but never spats.
posted by mcrandello at 5:21 AM on August 29, 2015

Wow, am I classless. I thought "spats" was just the name for the style of shoe that, it turns out, references the real spats.

Actually, those shoes are properly called spectators.
posted by slkinsey at 5:31 AM on August 29, 2015

Aren't spats still de rigueur for marching bands?


Depends-- my high school uniform had black pants, black shoes, white spats. With the effect that, if you were out of step, the judges can see it from a mile away. So, if you're wearing spats, you want to be in step.

A quick search of some drum corps (Cavaliers, Scouts, Cadets, Carolina Crown) finds no spats, except in some historical pictures (but note that these groups have other aspects of their uniforms that will draw attention to them all being in step or not); it does still seem to be common among some more intense college bands (OSU, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan are all be-spatted).
posted by damayanti at 6:38 AM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've done a lot of costuming for comic opera, and I've probably made more pairs of spats than I've had hot dinners in the last 5 years. It's a good cheat to cover up a modern shoe so people will think there's a period shoe underneath.We also do a fake boot top that we call "boot spats," which is very fun to say loudly in a stagey German accent. BOOTSCHPETZ!!!

(When I saw the walk-around character version of Mary Poppins at Disney World, the first thing that popped into my head was how poorly fitted her spats were.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:03 AM on August 29, 2015 [5 favorites]

I learned what spats were when my brother joined the University of Minnesota Marching Band. The late summer training sessions for the band are called "Spat Camp".
posted by ckape at 12:52 PM on August 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Huh, this did not tell me all that much about spats.

I did make a pair for a steampunk Halloween costume though :P
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:09 PM on August 30, 2015

uraniumwilly: Alright, now I know what spats are.

And now everyone on the internet knows uraniumwilly was never in marching band.

`
posted by IAmBroom at 9:15 AM on September 1, 2015

louche mustachio: "I love spats, but I have a touch of the dandyfoppery myself."

Eponysterical.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:41 PM on September 2, 2015