5 Rules For Buying Men's Dress Shoes

There are certain rules to adhere to, in order to maintain a healthy and respectable look when it comes to purchasing dress shoes. Here are five rules of what to do and what not to:

 

1. Leather Quality

-What Not To Do: Never buy that high-gloss leather that looks like patent but is not. It feels like plastic if you touch it and usually it is pretty close to being that. It wrinkles very easily and stays that way forever and also cracks very easily due to it’s lack of quality and the fact that it is super rigid. Another thing to look out for are leathers that smell like chemicals. The only things a leather should smell like are it’s own aromas or the polish that the people at the factory gave it before it was shipped to the distributor.

-What To Do: What you should look for in a superb leather is something that is supple yet firm. A French calfskin is usually the most popular because of its durability but also of it’s quality to feel like silk on your feet. Stiffer leathers like cordovan tend to be of higher quality besides you will have a shoe that you feel completely supported in.

-What To Know: Leathers are not indestructible. They will crease and will crack if you do not treat them properly. No leather is wrinkle free. Use shoetrees and get regular shines or polish them yourself once every other week.

2. Heels

–What Not To Do: Unless you are below 5 feet tall you should not be wearing heels that are much higher than 3cm or 1.2in. You will look like you are wearing boots and it just doesn’t correlate with the look of dress shoes, it just throws them way off.

Heels are high

Heels are moderate

While the shoe on the top is still a beautiful shoe is just looks funny to me and would look even funnier on someone who was wearing them with a suit. While it’s only a slight difference in terms of measurement, it’s difference on the eye is immense.

3. Toe Shapes

–What Not To Do: Anything too extreme is just not attractive by any means. A shoe should never be too square, too pointy or too round. It just doesn’t look good.

-What To Do: Avoid anything super symmetrical and choose something that has elegant curves that compliment each other to create a shoe that resembles the silhouette of your foot. However, since some of our feet are a little blunt looking, a little elongation in your shoe’s toe box never hurts as long as it is not too extreme. A perfect example is this shoe by Gaziano & Girling below

4. Silhouettes

–What Not To Do: Don't pair shoes and suits that do not compliment each other. Thus you should not buy shoes that are slim looking but you tend to wear suits that are a little more baggy looking i.e. not slim fit. In the same vein, do not buy thick shoes with bulky soles if you are someone who always wear skinny fit suits. Do not wear baggy suits with sleek shoes, it just looks terrible and better yet just don’t buy baggy suits. I'm not saying wear things that are only slim looking but wear things that actually fit the silhouette of your body and feet and also keep them correlating with each other; slim suits with slim silhouette shoes and more gracious suits with heavier looking shoes.

5.  Take Good Advice

-What To Do: Find the most stylish looking person you know and ask their advice!