http://www.thenaturalshoestore.com/images/prod/t/ghbass_n750_black.jpg

I know you're talking about with white socks and khakis. 

But I wear mine with the gray herringbone tweed and charcoal flannels. 

TB

Just curious. An historical point. Black shoes. Back in the day - 55 to 65, the glory years, did Ivy oriented American dressers ever wear black shoes? Because I get the impression they didn't. The black shoe has always seemed to me to be definitively British, the shoe for 'the City'. Even today the French and the Italians basically eschew them. All advice appreciated.

g.g.

I sport some black gibsons - Tim Little's version for work on odd occasions but not very often.

A black loafer defeats the mission of casualness.

Black shoes, as Weejun has noticed, do look good with green pants. If I do wear my black shoes for work, and I am not in a suit, it will be with green khakis and a BB white button down.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2010-04-10 23:53:49)

I understand where you're coming from Hank. I think it's a cultural thing too. British tradition says brown is for country and weekend (or of course to show you don't have to work!) and black was for the city and work and dress occasions like weddings and funerals. The trend has been here over the years to want to emulate the city 'work ethic' look both pushed by employers and employees. As a teenager I worked part time in Harrods and Selfridges both at that time ruled by strange and petty rules about staff dress.

Because I worked for a Japanese pen company and not for the stores I wore my own look, vintage OCBDs from flip navy vintage 3/2 blazer, gray flannels or smarter chinos, and oxblood weejuns. It used to drive the little hitlers in Harrods crazy. My argument was that it made no sense to prefer their staff wearing crappy ill fitting oversized suits from Mr Byrite (remember them? a particularly nasty trend for sloppy double breasted man made fabrics...LOL) and shoes from Ravel with silver tips on over well made ivy style. Harrods threatened to get me sacked, but then the big boss from Japan made a flying visit instore and congratulated me on my attire and insisted on a photo being taken with me to show the directors back in Tokyo how their Harrods concession looked so smart. Of course they (not Harrods) understood...

I'm not saying that black shoes don't have their place, but from an Anglo perspective in the general population of 'don't care what they wear', black is seen as safe and businesslike (even if they're crap and have studs or extraneous logos in metal on them) and brown seen as NOT businesslike.

I guess my prediliction for brown is borne out of that, it is a kind of 'f*** you' albeit a subtle one, but in the UK it doesn't go unnoticed. A friend of mine who works in a business consulting environment but in different corporations on a daily basis, only ever wears his many tan Crockett & Jones shoes and told me that the CEO of a major drinks co recently asked him why he was wearing 'orange' shoes "like an Italian"...

In Germany I was struck by the success of Alden when I went there in the lat 80s and there it seemed anyone not wanting to partake in (to me) strange German prediliction for beige or mid gray shoes was wearing cordovan as their rebellious colour.

Beyond all of this of course is that some people just look great wearing black!

Of course if I worked for Deutsche Bank in the City and wanted to get on I would be wearing black shoes too! Until I became indispensable of course then could invent my own rules a la Bert Cooper of Stirling Cooper!

Come to think of it, I think Bernie Madoff was wearing brown shoes with that natty turned collar Husky jacket he was wearing when arrested. I guess that proves the point of brown shoes!

BTW, I'm sure you know from popular culture references that in Britain in the 50s if you wore brown suede shoes you were either very dodgy and likely to trade on your ex-forces rank (like a colonel selling second hand Ferraris) or a coded message for being gay.

I still think brogues and longwings look better in black, even tassel loafers, the more baroque shoes. Think gothic (maybe architecture rather than subculture... ). And they also take on a patina and scarring with age, albeit a subtle one.

In the mid-nineties, going to work in black oxfords, chinos, white OCBD and fresh haircut, I well remember an American colleague's comment:

'Man, you look like a noo recroot!'

ze Germans...

I've got black wingtips, which are exceedingly comfortable, but certainly don't look as good as my cordo.  I've got black loafers, which seem somehow clumsier and less pleasing than wine - and are certainly less versatile: they absolutely have to be worn without socks. 
Otherwise: tie, pea coat and belt.  I can't think of anything more.  Black roll or polo necks used to be rather nice in the 60s.  Not sure about now. 

I'm getting increasingly interested in snuff.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2010-08-10 22:53:24)