'I like your shoes' - keeping pace with Jake

If it had not been for the hoodie hood being up (clearly a sartorial no-no on one so hot), it is possible that we may never have noticed that Jake Gyllenhaal was following in the footsteps of generations of British men who genuinely believe that socks and sandals go together like pie and chips. I am willing to give Jake the benefit of the doubt in that it may have been unintentional but, clearly, Jake's stay in England for much of last year may have had a detrimental impact on his clothing acumen. Fortunately, it only appears to have affected Jake from the ankles down.



With the guilt of the nation heavy in my heart for making Jake feel compelled to twin his flipflops/sandals/beachshoes with off-white ankle socks, I thought I would explore the lower reaches of Jake's wardrobe to uncover the footwear that lies within (carefully placed and paired or carelessly tossed and scattered?). You won't be surprised to hear that this meant throwing to one side almost every single pair of Nike known to man, certainly those with the most shox. I have considered Jake's Nike 'thing' before (sharing this addiction myself, albeit on a less than moviestar level) and so the lack of Nike in this post does not reflect its prominence in Jake's cupboards.


It is worth mentioning that Jake's Gyllenhaalics are not alone in having a healthy interest in how Jake keeps his feet dry. Robert Graysmith had a fascination - nay, an obsession - for Jake's shoes, as Jake warily reflected in an article about Zodiac: 'Occasionally, he would glance at things on me, and I'd think, what's he looking at? And he'd say things like, 'I like your shoes. Where did you get them? I had a pair of shoes like that once. What store did you get them from?' And then about an hour into it I realised if I didn't answer a question that he wanted an answer for, he would just throw it back in a different way. He was incessant, almost an obsessive journalist. He wouldn't let things lie.'


If Jake had been in the UK for a little longer, no doubt we would have had enjoyment from Jake in wellies (green, perhaps, if he spent too much time in the home counties). As it is, we must instead enjoy the sight of Jake modelling 2010's winter boots of choice - Persian style.



But when the situation calls for it, Jake knows how to wear the finest dress shoes, sacrificing his crocs and comfort for style and crutches. Jake does persist, on a regular basis, in taunting us with 'The Felt Clogs', presumably because their comfortability makes up for everything else...





...but other old familiars have become favourites - the scuffed boots, for example.



While the next couple of years holds the promise of Jake in dancing shoes and baseball boots, we have still the pleasure of cowboy leather and army beetlecrushers to enjoy.


As Jake clearly can't please us all, all of the time, maybe it's just best to go without.





Includes pictures from IHJ and foorwear from Jake.