Fashion and Work Use
Outside the gym, the Freestyle quickly hit the streets as popular casual wear. Women could wear Freestyles with jeans, shorts, capri pants, sweatpants, tights or leggings, and even as commuter shoes to work. In the 1980s, Freestyles were often seen with flop or slouch socks which were usually stretched over the bottom of the pant leg to help highlight the shoe. Actress Cybill Shepherd wore a bright orange pair, with a black strapless gown, at the 1985 Emmy Awards. Some women would own more than one color of Freestyles allowing some to wear two different colored shoes like white and black or red and yellow. This trend occurred after the Punky Brewster television series.
The slang name for the shoes was a "fifty-four eleven's" because the retail price for a pair was usually $49.99 USD and with tax, in New York City, they cost $54.11 USD.
The Freestyle's popularity, comfort, and styling quickly spread to the work place. Nurses and waitresses gave up ordinary uniform shoes for the Freestyle. It was not uncommon for many Hooters girls to be wearing Freestyles. Many men have also started to wear Reebok Freestyles for the comfort, and style. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for men to be wearing these shoes on the streets. That being said, they're more of a unisex shoe, rather than women's.
Read more about this topic: Reebok Freestyle
Famous quotes containing the words fashion and, fashion and/or work:
“How dwarfed against his manliness
She sees the poor pretension,
The wants, the aims, the follies, born
Of fashion and convention!”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“If thou fill thy brain with Boston and New York, with fashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the pinewoods.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Only an idiot would ask Wolfie to work on that stuff—twelve foot snakes, magic flutes.”
—Peter Shaffer (b. 1926)