Edit:  Oh, beans, I forgot to include a description of the trousers.  Added, now.

I've broken my promise to myself that I would only lurk here - not post - until my first contribution would consist of giving advice rather than asking for it.  With a little more imagination or experience I might be able to answer this question myself and my half-hearted, insincere, inconsequential oath could be kept, but I'm itching to buy something now because I'm a young art student and fresh initiate to the sartorial order and my closet is bursting at the hinges with boring and I live nowhere near decent shops - and, for all those same reasons, I don't have the sense or circumstance to take the next step without bothering you to help.
I beg your Christian forgiveness, or, failing that, your smug atheist indifference, so long as it is sufficiently amusing.

I would be as interested as I dare to admit in hearing not only what shoes you think I ought to lob into the ensemble, but also your opinion of the total outfit as described.  My budget for the shoes is approximately $250 USD, unless I would be really brilliant to spend a bit more.  $350 tops, though.  I'd be keen to buy used, seconds or otherwise-unloved shoes off of a forum member or from eBay, if you've any leads - but the option of returns for poor fit must be available.  I don't need advice only for a specific line of a particular brand; any random, general or whimsical ideas that you have on the subject of my quandary would be greatly appreciated, if only you might chance to be arsed to write them.

I'll mix things up a bit later on when my wardrobe is more robust, but this will be my first "signature" outfit, so let's deal in the limited terms with which I will be dealing for some time:

Mint (white and green pinpoint with ever-so-slightly-richer-green vertical stripes, thin to the verge of imperceptibility) spread collar, or sometimes, to give the other shirt a vacation, a button-down French blue.  Both have barrel cuffs.

A mossy/spinachy sort of cord sportcoat, fine and relatively thin.  Buttons are tortoise shell, looking like a watered-down coffee the instant cream hits it while mixing.  Not that I ever drink watered-down coffee, or adulterate it with cream.

The trousers are a warm, tobacco brown.  The fit is a bit roomy, the look quite casual.  Pleated, but hemmed rather than cuffed.  I think I'll wear braces on them once I get the belt loops off.

Lemony, buttery yellow knit silk tie, square-ended, with subtle alterations in the weave that, at regular intervals, give the impression of diagonal stripes without actually changing color in any way.  The tie is apt to vary just as soon as I learn how to successfully "clash" in order to incorporate more of the Brits' sense of style.  Likewise until I reach that point, a woven silk pocket square, richer yellow with sky blue, combining (at some but not all intersections) at any distance greater than eight inches into a pale green not entirely dissimilar from the mint shirt mentioned above.  Too "American?"

Again, until I can clash articles confidently, my mainstay socks will be a-touch-lighter-than-a-banana yellow, with grass green and between-sky-and-French blue, all in an argyle pattern, with thin white stripes.

My hair, if it matters, is dark chocolate almost-black.  My complexion is rubicund.

It also bears mentioning that I am a diminutive little shorty, barely reaching five and a half feet.  My feet are stubby, even for my height - so a style or tonal pattern that elongates the foot would be grand.  (Pretend that you're giving shoe advice to a hobbit who has had the misfortune of being denuded of his foot-wool.)  I think, then, that I would be better served by a shoe that is of a lighter shade than my trousers, and/or a shoe that is two-toned.  If that inclination is erroneous, please do let me know.

So endeth the post, but for:

Thanks a million, really.

Last edited by Odd (2008-06-15 17:51:58)