From loafers to the classic oxford. The shoes you wear should match the outfit and the outfit should match the occasion. We will divide the blog into three main categories: black tie, formal and casual outfits.
Black tie
Black tie events are normally at night and require a dark tuxedo. These events don’t happen as frequently as weddings or other formal events. The three types of shoes for this occasion are black oxfords, slippers made out of felt, or any black dressing shoe with black patent leather.
The picture below shows an Opera Pump. It was popular during the XVIII century, only worn for operas, dances, and other formal events. They are not common to see nowadays though celebrities in galas might wear them.
Classic rule for a classic gentleman: Never wear black dressing shoes with jeans.
Formal Outfit
Formal outfits can be worn at any time of the day and for different occasions such as weddings, graduations, office meetings and even job interviews. There are numerous types of oxford shoes that fit this category. Formal shoes are considered to have laces (excluding loafers of course). And also the less brogueing the shoe has the more formal it is. To understand what is a formal dressing shoe and what is less formal, we need to explain the brogue. Brogueing refers to the decorative perforations the shoe can have. Back in the days these perforations were actually holes that allowed water to come out when the person was walking in wet terrain such as swamps. These decorative perforations were kept over time but the functionality of the holes was taken away. Formal shoes can have some brogueing however excessive brogueing makes the shoes more casual than formal. The reason why is because there is too much going on in the shoe, remember less is more.
Below we show an image from https://www.ties.com/blog/mens-dress-shoe-guide that clearly shows us the most popular classic dressing shoes people wear. I would however place the wingtip oxford to the casual outfit category. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Casual outfit
Having a reunion with friends? Dinner with that special person? The term casual outfit can be interpreted in many ways; my type of casual outfit can be a shirt/polo, trousers/jeans/chinos and a suit/sport jacket. In this category all shoes with brogueing are accepted, as well as loafers, chelsea boots, derbies, monk straps and chukka boots. Wearing no-show socks can be acceptable, just make sure your pants fit so that you almost show your ankles, because if your pants cover your shoe laces it may look like you just forgot to put socks.
If you’re going out at night with loafers wear long socks (unless you’re at the beach)
We can see this image from https://www.ties.com/blog/mens-dress-shoe-guide that shows us the brogueing style that exists.
