two tone shoes NQOCD

During the 1930s shoes made of two tones of leather, one light, one dark, and worn by both men and women, were known as "divorce court" or "co-respondent" shoes. It was well known that Wallis Simpson wore them but it would have been considered extremely daring for a middle class British girl to do the same. Mrs R., an MP's daughter from Gloucestershire, remembers

"two-coloured shoes, you know, they were known as co-respondent shoes, everyone knew that. I mean you wouldn't dream of them. Or if you did, you were not quite our class dear, which was, NQOCD. Isn't that awful? That was said sometimes."

From: Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion and Class Between The Wars by Catherine Horwood.