Those Limey eyes, they were eying the prize some people call manly footwear
They say "you're from down south" and when you open your mouth, you always seem to put your foot there.

I think Gary P Nunn is the one who wrote that. He was actually talking about Texas and cowboy boots, but it's a nice tie in.

In some places, like South Carolina, there are white tie events around Christmas and Thanksgiving- debutante balls where the men wear tails and white gloves and the ladies wear white gloves that reach over their elbows. Dresses reach the floor and everyone is on their best behavior. At least until they have too much to drink. Additionally, many weddings include white tie for the groom and maybe his ushers. It's a way of being more dressed up than the guests.

McMillan has observed that the wearing of formal slippers is slightly different- at once dressy and not quite right for going out, though I have noticed gentlemen wearing them at private parties "in public", i.e., not in their own homes. No doubt this is pushing things, but acceptable.

At least since the Kennedy inauguration, efforts have been made to subtly democratize the inaugural balls, but I believe Presidents still wear white tie from time to time at state dinners.

Any formal wear shop will rent you a set of tails. Brooks Brothers and Joseph Bank sell them. EBay is awash in them, both traditionally correct and , um, less orthodox styles. Some demand must exist.

Since rental shoes seem somehow more intimate ( and less likely to fit) than rental coats and trousers, many men wear their own black shoes with rented ( hired, for the UK gents) formal wear. And you see the entire gamut, from stylish and correct through barely acceptable all of the way to "he really should have known better." I find that someone else usually has on pumps any time I wear them, even if the guy next to him is wearing weejuns. As for effeminacy ( no offense taken, by the way ) I find them to be less effete than patent leather oxfords, which is what some others prefer.

I guess it could be called a social class thing or it could be called something else. Again, throughout much of the South and the East ( Philadelphia, New York, Boston) there are people who don't have much money at all who observe traditions that go unnoticed elsewhere. Whether that is good or bad or silly, I can't say. It just is.

I'll just leave with this. I wear a bow tie fairly often and I have already admitted to the shoes. When I put on a kilt, I figure people might notice my shoes or my tie ( or even a jabot) but the first thing they will see is that I'm not wearing any trousers. If they get past that, then they might worry about the rest.