The phrase “white-shoe firm” evokes an established Wall Street institution: prestigious, tradition-bound and associated with the old guard of American business and law. But the label began with something more literal—a shoe.

The footwear in question was the white buck, a light-colored lace-up shoe that became a warm-weather staple on Ivy League campuses in the 1930s and 1940s. Its popularity among students at elite colleges made it more than a seasonal fashion choice. The shoe became associated with a particular social set, one whose members also populated and ran many of Wall Street’s old-line firms.

Over time, the image of the shoe came to stand in for the institutions themselves. To call a law firm “white shoe” was to place it in a world of long-established prestige and deeply rooted traditions. The term captured not just how those firms presented themselves, but also the social circles from which they drew their members.

That history carries a less polished meaning alongside the prestige. The same elite networks associated with white bucks and Ivy League campuses helped define who belonged at old-line Wall Street firms—and, for decades, who was kept out. The phrase therefore reflects a culture of exclusivity as well as an image of professional stature.

Today, a lawyer is more likely to hear “white shoe” used as shorthand for a certain kind of firm than as a reference to anyone’s wardrobe. Yet the expression remains a reminder of how closely clothing, social identity and institutional power were once linked in the popular image of Wall Street.