OXFORDS ARE FOR SQUARES (MISSION DISTRICT'S FOOTWEAR) | FEAT. PETER PLATE

He wouldn’t leave it alone. “I hate him. Look at his damn shoes.”
The cop had on nondescript black oxfords, footwear for squares. Oxfords were an insult to anyone with decent taste. They represented boredom and mediocrity. A guy in oxfords never got the pretty girl. He was never the life of the party.
Peter Plate
From: Soon the Rest Will Fall (
Seven Stories Press, 2006)

Crockett & Jones | Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire
Source: History World


Patsy had to wonder about the doctor. Her mother didn’t understand how she could tolerate a man who wore Guatemalan cloth vests and Birkenstock shoes.
Peter Plate
From: One Foot Off The Gutter (Incommunicado Press, 1995)

2015 | Birkenstock
Photograph by Pari Dukovic
Source: New Yorker magazine

She was changing in other ways too - modeling a Charles Manson-style maternity dress made from dungaree scraps with Birkenstock sandals on her swollen feet, a bottle of lime-flavored Calistoga mineral water at her side. Not even twenty-three years old and she was deep into the pose of a nouveau hippie mother.
Peter Plate
From: Police and Thieves (
Seven Stories Press, 1999)

1991 | Birkenstock
Since 1902


I didn’t have any answers for Hendrix. His second-rate loafers had looked cheap when they’d peeked out from under the medic’s plastic blanket. The heels were worn out; the soles had holes in them. Harry had ingratiated himself with Petard to keep his job, and what did it get him?
Nothing but his own death in a pair of shoes that were embarrassing to look at.
Peter Plate
From: Snitch Factory (Seven Stories Press, 1997)

Florsheim loafers owned by Michael Jackson
Auctioned for € 32,759
Source: Live Auctioneers

A slender, yellow skinned Mexican rigged out like a jazz musician in Sta-Prest green slacks, a sateen fedora, imitation Italian loafers, red lensed sunglasses and a droopy black leather coat, Jimmy wore a moderate pompadour and a fuzzy goatee. 
Peter Plate
From: Angels Of Catastrophe (
Seven Stories Press, 2001)

Gluecifer
Ridin' The Tiger (White Jazz, 1997)
Photograph: Morten Andersen

Rook dressed better than anyone else in the Mission. Satin shirts and silk underwear were de rigueur for him. Expensive Italian boots from Milan were his due in life.
Peter Plate
From: Angels Of Catastrophe (
Seven Stories Press, 2001)

2105 | Fratelli Rossetti
Source: Robb Report


I am part of what I would call the working class Jewish Diaspora of North America. I come from NYC, but I was raised in a right­wing working class town of 100,000 people on the edge of the desert and the mountains, where LA’s smog comes to its final resting.
Peter Plate
From: The Brooklyn Rail interview by Christian Parenti (2002)


SHOES & BOOKS
[FEAT. HEMINGWAY, SHAKESPEARE, SARAMAGO, RANKIN, GALEANO ...]


2008 | Peter Plate
Photograph: Mike Kepka
Source: SFGate

 

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