First and foremost, shorts are generally an informal article of clothing. The most common look is to wear shorts with sandals. When wearing sandals, you should generally avoid socks. We did talk about this in a previous article: socks with sandals

But what happens if you don’t want to wear sandals? Can you wear sneakers? Yes, sneakers are also informal and that goes with the shorts. If you are going to wear sneakers, you can definitely wear socks. However, unless you’re out on the field playing soccer, don’t wear the long socks that you pull up high towards your knees. This also holds true regardless of the type of shoes that you’re going to wear. You typically want to go for the athletic low-cut socks. They’re present but they don’t cover up too much. If you think about this from a logical standpoint, it also make sense… the whole point of shorts is to give you more breathing room – long socks don’t quite help you accomplish that

What about hiking boots? Can you wear a pair with your shorts? Sure, if you’re going hiking…. otherwise, doesn’t make too much sense.

The real question is… can you wear formal shoes with shorts? Generally speaking, no. Why? Well, they’re formal and shorts are not. Not to worry, though, there are still options if you want to wear something other than sneakers and sandals. You can wear boat shoes or loafers. We’ve written about boat shoes before: what are boat shoes?

Penny loafers are another option… they’re slip on shoes and you can even skip the socks when you wear them – great option for summer time.

Happy Summer!

(image courtesy of TheShoeBuff)

These shoes will definitely draw attention. Conventionally, you would wear them with a tux to a wedding or some other formal dinner. With this said, you could also wear these shoes with a patterned dark suit and you should be turning heads.

These aren’t the type of shoes that you would wear everyday since they do crease and deteriorate quite easily. If you do own a pair of patent leather shoes, you probably want to also invest in a pair of shoe trees:

Shoe trees will help your patent leather shoes last longer, absorb moisture (especially if you have wooden shoe-trees), and maintain their ideal shape. Patent leather is fragile so it can get scraped/scratched; in which case you should take them for professional care. If it does start raining while you’re wearing these shoes, it’s not a big deal since they can get wet. Generally speaking, most people think of “black” patent leather shoes; but, not all patent leather shoes are black. Consider the following pair of shoes from TheShoeBuff:

Consider the following pair of jeans from Diesel:

There are a number of combinations that would work well with this and would ensure enough contrast. Before, we talk about the ideal pair of shoes to wear, let’s talk about what to avoid: everyday sneakers. You know your pair of Nike running shoes? Avoid them. Don’t get us wrong, these are great if you are going for the sporty look. If, however, you want to look fashionable at a night club, make sure to leave them at home.

Now, does this mean that all sneakers are bad? No. Take for example this pair of Puma shoes:

The white color will provide nice contrast. Match this with a stylish white belt:

Pair this all with a nice shirt dress shirt from Banana Republic and you’ll be turning heads:

You could of course, go with a shirt that has French Cuffs and you’ll be more than in style.

With that said, this look may be a bit too risky if you’re not used to turning heads. Not to worry. You could go for a nice pair of Calvin Klein brown leather shoes along with a matching brown belt. Stick with the dress shirt and cuffs and you’ll still be very much in style:

Last, but not least, there is the traditional black leather shoe:

We started with the Puma look (most risky), to the Brown Calvins (fashionable), to the black Calvins (fashionable and conservative). Choose the style that works best for you. When you are choosing your shoes, though, make sure that you put on a pair of darker socks and a belt that matches your shoes. If you have a nice look that you’d like us to write about, send us your pictures, and we’ll be happy to post and write about it!

Generally, people wear white pants starting on Memorial Day (May 31, 2010) and stop on Labor Day (September 6, 2010). With this said, we have to really look at why this rule exists before we follow it. Following rules simply because they exist is foolish. The date range given above almost guarantees decent weather in most North American cities. Wearing white shoes/pants during winter time is discouraged since lighter colors get dirty faster and winter weather expedites this process.

If you live in a warmer climate like Texas, though, as long as it’s sunny and above 70 degrees, then we would say, go for it. Bring out the white. If you’re wearing white shoes, though, make sure to carry along your white belt – that you just have to do.

The lighter the shoe color, the lighter you pant color should be. Take for example, the model who is wearing this Ralph Lauren Brown Sharkskin Suit:

As you can see, he has light brown shoes that go with his sharkskin brown pants. If you were to wear light-brown or off-white pants, then light brown pants would go very well. The same concept applies to jeans as well. If you are wearing darker color jeans, go with dark brown shoes. If you’re wearing light colored jeans, then go with light brown shoes. While doing this, don’t forget the golden rule with shoes… your belt has to match

So to conclude:

1) If you’re going to buy only one pair of brown shoes, go with dark brown (matches more pant colors)

2) Lighter colored pants go with lighter colored shoes

3) Your belt must match your shoes

So, what are boat shoes anyway? Well, as the name suggests, they were originally invented to be worn on a boat. In 1935, Paul Sperry noticed how his dog was able to easily run on wet surfaces and so he came up with the idea of a siping, which has since then become a standard in boat shoes. A siping is simply a pattern of cuts on the soles of the shoes designed to improve traction. Other than that, boat shoes are generally water resistant, made of leather and have rubber soles. The soles can be dark or white and are non-marking for good reason (most people don’t want marks on their boat deck ).

Some tend to confuse loafers and boat shoes. If you need a rule of thumb for the purpose of distinction, boat shoes are more sporty and loafers are more formal. If you’re planning on wearing shorts and a t-shirt, then go for boat shoes (choosing loafers in this case would be horrific, but of course). Also, if you want to be part of the cool crowd, if you’re wearing boat shoes, make sure to skip the socks. Really, leave them at home. Socks, you can do with loafers but not with boat shoes.

Great question. For our readers, if you’re not familiar with MK2 shirts, check out the following picture:

As a safe bet, with this outfit, you can wear a nice medium to dark brown pear of loafers or semi-dressy shoes. This would definitely go with what you’re wearing. Brown shoes generally go well with jeans so depending on the color of your trousers, you can go with light brown to dark brown. For ideas, check out the following pair of Gucci Loafers:

If you want to go more casual, you can even wear slip-on white Pumas:

Thanks again for your questions and keep them coming! Submit your fashion Questions Here.

The answer is that you can wear light brown or even white dress shoes depending on the color of suit and whether the occasion is formal or more casual (white for casual and light brown for formal). As you can see in the picture above, our SuitUpp model is wearing light brown shoes (for a more formal look). If you have another color suit and are trying to decide what type of shoes to wear, consider this guide on what type of shoes to wear (another blog post from us).

Now, the question is, how closely do these two items of clothing need to match anyway? The truth is that they do not need to be an exact match. When we say they should match, what we mean is that you shouldn’t wear brown with black or you shouldn’t wear white with brown – i.e. they shouldn’t be obviously mismatched. As a matter of fact, you could even wear brown and black together – assuming that both items of clothing were dark enough to be mostly indistinguishable. So, there you have it… you don’t need to obsess about extreme matches. This should give you some flexibility as to what things you can throw together to portray an interesting look

First of all, let us start off by saying… fun, fun, fun! Wish we were there! To answer this question simply, as the occasion is formal, lace up shoes are preferable (they always are in formal settings – especially since the reception is indoors).  We recently wrote a blog post about what shoes to wear for different occasions that touched on this:

“For more formal occasions, go for lace-up shoes rather than slip ons. Closed laced shoes are also preferred over open laced shoes.If you’re wondering what the difference is, closed laces are what you call shoes that have a V shape where they get tied together. Open lace shoes have more of a parallel shape where they are tied together.

Remember that when you are wearing dressy shoes, the laces should be tied horizontally as opposed to the criss-cross pattern most commonly associated with athletic shoes.”

Hope this helps!