The story mentions modern day successors in the form of winklepickers which were apparently a highlight of 1950's/1960's fashion [0][1]. I'm predicting a resurgence in the early 2020's until the TSA declares them a menace to airport security at which point they fall out of favour again until the early 2050's.
I had read the term "winklepicker" a few times in the past, with no photo or description, and just assumed it was the snappy British equivalent of the American "clamdigger" -- a sort of short pants you'd wear collecting mollusks.
A classic example of "what you know that just ain't so."
I didn't know there was a connection! I wonder if the US highway shields also somehow kept an "older" design language while in Europe things "progressed" more easily to more modernist forms.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winklepicker
[1] https://gucinari.co.uk/shoes/boots/the-history-of-winklepick...