Rules on Shoe color?

[charlie farley]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the rule is the shoe colour should be the same as the belt colour.I wear my brown prada brogues I got off ebay for £40 with my navy suit.

 

[charlie farley]

It is true that I pick up the mail at work, often while wearing brown shoes. Coincidence? lol

Maybe I'll wear this again next time...

Very nice shoes.I like the buckles.

 

[jake_fink]

Brown shoes are fine with gray and navy. In fact, I prefer them with navy over black.

Brown with gray:

Brown with navy:

That's just wrong! Is there no one here who is from the era when we all lived in suits during the week?

It's not wrong, it looks great.

Rules suck.

 

[univibe88]

Here's another vote for you AlanC. Those combos in your pictures look great. I think wearing quality, well kept shoes with quality, properly tailored pants and properly co-ordinated socks does allow one more creativity in the shoe/slack matching department. A benefit having some flair is that the women-folk will take notice. I don't think women don't notice black shoes.

I believe the Italians are very fond of brown shoes - particularly brown with blue - and are to blame for this style.

As stated, cordovan is another animal entirely. It looks great with navy.

This this one on for size - light brown/camel with medium grey slacks.

 

[Edward]

I'm not one for a lighter tan with navy suit, but otherwise, if it looks good, I'll go with it. No point being limited by 'rules.'

I do think it also helps if the other accessories - belt, hat, gloves, etc - match with the shoes.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

Universal brown it is! Thank you to everyone. But please don't let me stop the discussion and picture sharing. Carry on, gents and ladies.

 

[Feraud]

fwiw-

 

[dhermann1]

Color vs. shade

The ostensible color of an item doesn't necessarily determine the aesthetic impact. The shade of that color can be just as important or more so. I've heard that you should always polish brown shoes with black shoe polish, which will give it a much less intrusive or flashy quality. That's probably why deep brown shoes can look good with navy trousers. A bright brown would definitely not look so good.
I like cordovan too. Anybody have oxblood shoes? They're an even deeper shade of almost purple.

 

[univibe88]

I tried searching for oxblood shoes once but couldn't find any. Google got me nothing. Nothing in the AE catalog was listed as oxblood.

 

[AlanC]

'Oxblood' = cordovan (the color)

These are made of shell cordovan (the hide) in color #8, which is the traditional color of cordovan.

Universal brown it is!

Fight the power!

 

[Bourbon Guy]

Back when we all lived in suits, the 70's through the 90's for my memory bank, brown shoes were just too casual for the office, as were brown suits. The shoes we wore with suits were either black or cordovan (shell cordovan, i.e., horsehide, not maroon cowhide) and our suits were shades of grey or dark blue in solids, stripes, and subtle patterns. It made life easier in a way, because clothes weren't a distraction and didn't require much thought or decision-making, other than 2 patterns max between suit, shirt, and tie. You just put on your uniform in the morning.

You can wear whatever you want now, but brown shoes with a blue suit will always look strange to me.

 

[Bourbon Guy]

'Oxblood' = cordovan (the color)

Not really. I believe oxblood is more reddish in color than cordovan.

 

[Tomasso]

the 70's through the 90's for my memory bank, brown shoes were just too casual for the office, as were brown suits.

It was Ronald Reagan who really turned me on to brown suits circa '80 but my father had them in his wardrobe for most of his 93 years. It appears that you and your circle subscribed to the No Brown in Town rule.