Welcome to the 2nd installment of Menswear Mondays…where my brother Silas again puts me to shame. Seriously, he even poses better than me.
I’ll let him take it from here…
I’m talking about shoes, zapatos, schuhe, chaussures…whatever your language may be, the fact cannot be escaped that a nice shoes are not cheap. Some other items you can get away with skimping on cost (cue my eclectic list of various shirt brands), but shoes are not one of them if we want to do this right.
There are a few generic styles of shoes every man should own:
The Driving Moc – The driving [moccasin] is, in my humble opinion, the most casual shoe you can wear outside of a tennis shoe. “What about docksiders?” – Ok, those are pretty casual too however I think they are a bit over played. Pictured here is a Cole Haan Driving Moccasin.
These happen to have laces but many of them are simply flat front or have a penny loafer type strip of leather over the mid foot. These shoes are great in the spring/summer sans socks and just as good in the fall with some fancy argyle socks. You can wear them with jeans, chinos, or casual dress pants.
Pictured is a broken in Alden 405 Redwing boot. If you know your movie history, you may recognize these boots. They are the type of boot that Indiana Jones wore in his movies. I didn’t choose them because I want to be Indiana Jones (anymore), I chose them because they are top of the line quality and with the right care, will out last their owners. These would look great with a dark wash jean or chinos.
The ideas I have listed are pretty expensive. I would be lying if I said that I have or will have all of these anytime soon. But, my hope is that you have gained a few more ideas on what to wear besides tennis shoes.
[Editor’s note – anything is better than tennis shoes. Except flip flops. Those are usually much worse.]
Pictured:
Ralph Lauren Navy quarter-zip sweater
Chaps blue stripe OCBD [Oxford Cloth Button Down – I had to look that up]
Kohl’s Nantucket Red chinos
Good Will tassel loafers