Nobody should have to take off their shoes in someone else's apartment!

My new leather stocking boots from Gia Borghini are beautiful. I would never want to take them off again and I even bought myself a pair of tight-fitting neoprene pants so that the two merge seamlessly, as you last saw on the catwalks. So these boots are part of the outfit, you don't take them off until you can't avoid it anymore. And it would be a fashion outrage for someone to suggest that I take off my boots in his apartment.

With other shoes, which usually complete the outfit, it should be a matter of course to keep them. That's why I ask less and less if I should take them off when I'm visiting somewhere. My hope: to eradicate the etiquette over time. However, it only works with people who don't like to take measures against their counterpart and they are known to be rare. Accordingly, I often hear the request to get rid of the shoes.

Here are the different reasons, listed in descending order of frequency: carpet, parquet, children, corona, dog. If you are barefoot afterwards or only wear thin socks, you will sometimes be offered house socks. House socks are rarely plain black stockings, but mostly fleece-lined and printed with "cute" figures. Of course, the offer is meant nicely, but these socks don't just ruin an outfit that was once lovingly composed. There are even people whose appetite they spoil when invited to eat.

So first to the dog, which so far has only been used once as an argument for taking off your shoes – but still. I've never had a dog, but shouldn't it be more of a reason to keep your shoes on, because a dog like that brings in a lot of dirt (unlike in the US, by the way, where a surprising number of dogs wear stocking boots outside)?

I don't have children yet either, but I was one myself, and in my opinion hygiene seems to be just as much an excuse as Corona. Babies crawl on the street, children on daycare floors and in Ikea ball pits and are constantly exposed to all sorts of viruses. What should it be? In the worst case, they get sick a couple of times because of surfaces that are not disinfected and not polished to a shine. In return, they may develop improved immunity for life.

So babies, dogs and viruses are just pretended objections by those people who react hysterically to every crumb of dirt in their apartment. When it comes to the damage that shoes are supposed to cause - i.e. dents, holes and gray marks - people like to exaggerate. And here I really know what I'm talking about: In my living room there is a large cream-colored wool carpet on the herringbone parquet, in the bedroom there is a kilim, on the balcony another one - and for very special reasons that would take too long to explain now, there is even in my entire kitchen beige carpeting.

Before guests enter my carpet-heavy apartment, they can wipe off the autumn leaves and snow on the doormat (in my case a mini Persian), which everyone usually does without being asked, because that's what it's there for after all. Pumps, boots, sneakers, stocking boots, stilettos and everything else can of course be kept on. You can't tell from the floors after two and a half years. Neither the parquet nor the carpets. Only a large speck of coffee is emblazoned on the beige wool carpet, which spilled out of the cup when I twisted my head to photograph a new skirt from behind. And a bit of red wine reminds you of a really good evening with friends. At least every single one of them was completely and splendidly dressed.