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" If you read the Wall Street Journal this morning, you might be tempted to head over to Brooks Brothers or Ralph Lauren and snag yourself some velvet slippers before they&amp;#039;re sold out. You know, all the cool kids in the city (and Kanye West, and his annoyingly-named stylist, Cassius Marcellus Cornelius Clay) are turning to these formal shoes as the slip-on of the season, pairing them with denim and shorts and all other forms of casual warm-weather apparel. Please don&amp;#039;t do that. Prince Albert Slippers, as they&amp;#039;re officially known, or Hugh Hefner slippers, as the WSJ would have them known, are made of velvet for a reason: They&amp;#039;re meant only for formal occasions. And actually, at one point, they were intended to be worn only by the host of a party \u2014 in times gone by, people actually had formal events in their own homes. Today, if you wanted to be particularly dashing (or, in some circles: obnoxiously preppy), you could slip on a pair of these slippers right after you put on a tux. For this to work, you&amp;#039;d have to be headed somewhere nice for the evening \u2014 somewhere inside. So, even as brands like Stubbs &amp;amp;amp; Wootton attempt to add some edge to formal slippers for day \u2014 skull and crossbones, how original \u2014 resist the bait. They slip-on and they&amp;#039;re comfortable and show you follow trends, sure. As do espadrilles, and they can run you about $200 less as you ruin them at Lollapalooza. Velvet, of course, can withstand neither rain nor crowds. Say you&amp;#039;ve already given in to the trend? Then upgrade to Del Toro. It&amp;#039;s a young brand that&amp;#039;s also informalizing the slipper, but the designers have done the other companies one better with their new Boat Slipper (above). It features quilting instead of embroidered insignias. They&amp;#039;ve also replaced the leather sole with a rubber one (good for outside) and the velvet with suede, like your favorite pair of desert boots. In other words: they&amp;#039;re shoes, not slippers. Albeit blue suede shoes \u2014 with a heel. Boat Slipper ($265), buydeltoro.com "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a32941/velvet-slippers-trend-5972937/>