Would you agree when I say your clothes are a reflection of your personality? Whether you are dressing up for an occasion or just pottering around the house, your clothes can define your mood and outlook.
However, being a sensible dresser means having a wardrobe that is not only comfortable but also contemporary and socially acceptable. On the other hand, you can have a completely different point of view regarding a certain dress combination than your colleagues.
Therefore, it is important to check your references. You definitely won’t want to be an eyesore or people-repellant.
You can use either matching or contrasting styles to come up with combinations that are eye-catching and pleasant to look at.
In our piece here, we will limit ourselves to how you can match different pieces of your dress for a good look. And by the way, we will be discussing guys only, but for girls out there you can have a peek around if you want your man to be better-dressed.
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What To Wear With Different Shoes – A Simple Guide
You can have different focal pieces in your dressing and adjust the rest accordingly. For example, you have a new shirt that you want to put on and thus would want the rest of the pieces to complement that. The same can be said about your shoes, pants, and even some of the accessories.
We will enlist some of the commonly used shoe types and what you can wear with them. Here we go!
Oxford Shoes And What to Wear With Them
Oxford shoes are the go-to shoes for men for formal and semi-formal dressing. The closed lacing is the hallmark of Oxford shoes and gives your dressing and personality that organized look. History traces them back to the earlier 1800s, but they are believed to have been around for much longer.
If you are wondering what color shoes to wear with grey pants, here is the answer, brown Oxford shoes. Brown shoes match well with colors like grey, dark brown, and navy blue. Thus, if you have that all-famous navy blue suit, brown Oxfords can complement it well.
Tan Oxfords are also gaining popularity. The good thing about them is that you can even wear them with your denim. Nevertheless, their dark and light tones make them go with a number of options.
If you are looking for a formal look with tan shoes go with a dark brown suit with a same-colored polka dot tie. Darker color suits, in general, give you more flexibility in terms of the color of shirt you can wear. For the shirt, you can go with light shades of brown, blue or purple.
If you are looking for that lovely smart-casual look with tan Oxfords, you can simply go with a white shirt and light blue chinos.
Other than that, you can combine a purple gingham shirt and black chinos and complement that with tan oxford shoes.
Moving on, black Oxfords probably give you the most freedom when it comes to combining different colors. They are the number one choice when it comes to formal, classy, and orthodox looks.
If you are looking for a dressy look with black Oxfords, you can go with a grey three-piece suit and marry it with a white shirt. To complete the look, you will need a grey tie and a white pocket square.
Black Oxfords are not really casual shoes. But, if you have limited shoe options, you can combine ripped navy jeans with a navy cardigan and put on a white shirt. To complete the look, I would recommend a sharp-colored canvas belt.
When and How to Wear Derby Shoes
Derby’s are often confused with Oxford’s. They are open-laced shoes as opposed to close-laced Oxfords. Because of this open-lacing system, they are not as sleek, slim, or formal as Oxfords. They give more dressing options and also accommodate a wide variety of foot types.
Derby shoes utilize a variety of materials including leather, suede, and canvas and these give you further options to personalize.
For my smart-casual outings, I like blue suede derby shoes. For such occasions, you can go in blue chinos, a short-sleeve white shirt, and blue derby shoes. You can go with no socks and no-show socks.
For a more dressy look, you can go with a grey blazer and waistcoat with a white shirt and blue chinos. You can finish the look with a number of accessories like a navy bow-tie and canvas holdall.
Grey color should be exclusive to men. I mean what looks better than grey. If you love grey like me and have grey shoes and are wondering what to wear with them? we can help.
For a smart-casual to a casual look, go for a black leather jacket with a crew-neck T-shirt, blue jeans, and dark brown leather belt. Put these on and tell us if you catch eyes like Bradley Cooper.
For a formal look with grey derby shoes, use a navy suit and white shirt and complement it with a mustard tie and sunglasses.
Black derby shoes are also men’s favorite choice when it comes to formal dressing. However, they look equally good with more relaxed and casual outfits. For a relaxed look, use black leather derby shoes and put them to work with ripped black jeans with a white tank, and finish it with a black leather jacket.
From little that we know Brad Pitt loves brown derby shoes. We have a couple of looks from him to show how you can pull out both a formal and a more casual look. For a more dressy look, use a teal suit and plain white dress shirt and finish this easy but formal look with dark brown suede derby shoes.
For a more smart-casual look, you can go with charcoal jeans with a same-colored Polo neck sweater, put on a white crew-neck T-shirt. To finish the look, you can put on black glasses and a flat cap. Lastly, for shoes, wear brown leather derby shoes.
How to Match Clothes and Loafers For Men
Loafers made their first show back in the 1930s and have been popular casual shoes ever since. So, what actually is a loafer shoe?
Loafers are basically laceless shoes with exposed ankles. They have a welt or seam on top of the vamp which is like a moccasin but unlike moccasin, they have a separate sole. In addition, they mostly have a low heel. There are quite a few different types of loafers that you can find such as tassel loafers, penny loafers, pump loafers, driving loafers, Kiltie loafers to name a few.
As said, loafers are mostly casual shoes as they are slip-on. What is a big no-no with loafers is double-breasted suits or more formal dresses. Loafers can also differ from each other in terms of the material they are made up of, for example, canvas loafers, leather loafers, and suede loafers.
You can wear loafers with denim. They just give a dressier look than sneakers. For jeans, ensure that the length is on the shorter side as longer and baggy jeans do not go well with loafers. Use contrasting colors for your clothing and you can wear loafers with ripped, washed, and selvage jeans.
For a smart-casual look with loafers, you can go with a dark-colored wool blazer and also add a dark-colored V-neck sweater, put charcoal dress pants and finish the look with black leather loafers.
For a summer smart-casual look, go with a chino and loafer combination. If you are like most men you would love blue, black, and khaki chinos. Pull out show-stealing looks with black chinos complemented by a tan Polo shirt. Put accessories such as a beige bandana and beige wool hat and finish the look with a black leather belt and black sunglasses. For this combination, you can use tobacco leather loafers.
One question I often get asked is whether you can wear loafers with suits, yes you absolutely can. However, ensure that the trousers reach your ankles and partly or fully cover them.
Some Shoe Rules Men Need to Follow
We will put some of the rules that you can follow to look the best you can. Here they are:
- In terms of shoe color classification, black is more formal and dressier than any other color including tan and brown.
- Leather in shoes is more formal than suede and canvas
- Wingtips are less formal than cap toes
- As a general rule, your shoes should be darker than your trousers for formal attires.
- The purpose of socks is to bridge the gap between your shoes and pants. Therefore, if they are of a similar color to your shoes it is better.
- Try your best to match your shoes with your belt
- Have a couple of pairs of formal shoes, a pair of casual shoes and a pair of sneakers.
- Go for a more classy than an edgy outfit whenever you are not sure or confident
Answering Your Style Questions
Final Words
There you go, I hope this answers your how-to-match clothes and shoes for guys’ question. We have outlined a couple of more formal shoe types and a more casual type in the form of loafers. And how you can match those with different clothes to come up with scene-stealing looks.
As said earlier, you can pick any piece of dressing and work your way around it to come up with classy looks. We decided to pick shoes and answered how you can use them as a focal point to decide the rest of the dressing. You can always go the other way around.
For the more formal dressing, we recommend always going with shoes that are darker than your trousers/pants. And what is the darkest color, yes it is black. Therefore, you can use black shoes with most of your dress pants. You can also use shoes of tan and brown colors for formal outlooks.
In terms of shoe material, leather is definitely the most formal followed by canvas and suede. Oxford shoes hold the title for most formal shoes but everybody can have their own opinion regarding this.
In my humble opinion, in men’s fashion, you do not need to go by the books. You can always break the rules and go with whatever you feel makes you look confident and pleasant.
