[JLibourel]

Was following with mild interest the thread about the blue and green shoes and got to musing: From time to time at least one or two of the "heavy hitters" in this forum have inveighed against calfskin shoes in the red-brown range commonly and erroneously called "cordovan" (aka "oxblood," "burgundy," "merlot," etc.), calling them cheap and sleazy looking, etc. I spent most of my life in blissful ignorance thinking that "cordovan" was a color not a material and that it was a very useful shoe color--the universal mixer and all that (as I learned in my teens). In the past couple of years I have acquired three pairs of Allen-Edmonds dress casual shoes in merlot (Ashton, Norse, Benton) and one pair of their dress shoes (Park Avenue). After reading these comments in the fora, I am now wondering if I should have purchased them. I don't like them quite as much as shoes in the brown tones, but I still find them quite attractive. Anyway, is the antipathy toward calfskin shoes dyed in the red-brown tones the prejudice of the few or the consensus of the many on this forum? I'd enjoy hearing from anyone who had any opinions on this matter.