Belts and Shoes
Posted on July 21, 2008
Filed Under STYLE |
One of the more overlooked areas of stylish dressing is the relationship between belts and shoes. The first point to make regarding belts and shoes is that you should not actually match them, they should compliment each other. They should work together visually but not match so closely that it looks like you purchased them as a set!
A simple rule to keep in mind is that you should wear a brown belt with brown shoes and a black belt with black shoes. We will also cover tone, dress vs casual, and bright colors.
Tone will mostly apply to brown, as there are so many shades to choose from. The darker the shoe is the darker the belt should be. It is not advisable to wear chocolate brown shoes with a light brown belt. You will need to find something closer in tone. You want to create harmony in the tones of leather not conflict. Again, you want them to compliment each other.
The next point to consider is if your outfit is dressy or casual. We will look at three elements when determining this, buckle, leather type, and width. A nice, trim, shiny belt buckle says dressy. If you are wearing a suit with nice leather soled shoes this is the direction to go. If you have a belt with a buckle that looks like it was forged by a blacksmith in the Middle Ages you will want to consider wearing this with a more casual outfit like jeans. Choose your leather in much the same way as your buckle. Smooth and shiny leathers tend to be more dressy and rough or textured leathers are more casual. You also need to consider width. Generally dress belts are thinner than casual ones but be careful here as the size or width of the belt loops should also play a part in determining the width of your belt. You don’t want to put a narrow belt with a pair of pants that have wide belt loops. Your belt should fit comfortably in the loops.
The last area I want to touch on is how to select a belt when wearing shoes in bright colors like red or green. Wearing a belt in the same color will often seem like too much of a good thing. If you are wearing red shoes I can pretty much guarantee that your shoes are the focal point of your outfit and a red belt would only serve to knock your look right over the edge. Consider a brown that has some red tone to it like a caramel color or such. If your brightly colored shoes have a dark sole you may choose a belt that compliments the tones there instead of the upper.
Finally, belts are a very important but often overlooked part of a man’s wardrobe. They are another example of the attention to detail that a man must consider if he wants to be truly well dressed.
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One Response to “Belts and Shoes”
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Ah, this was a great post!
I think a lot of people over look the belt/shoe combination.
I think you were on the dot as far as I see a lot of men with the “matchy matchy” looking shoe and belt thing going on.
EXCELLENT info!