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On the wearing of light-coloured shoes

Summery shoe colours like sand, ivory, taupe and pale blues all work great for warm-weather styles like suede loafers and bucks, but they can be a little tricky to wear without ending up with a grown-up (but equally unpleasant) variation of white sneakers plus anything.

There are no rules, and sartorial experts will ignore all of these guidelines, but a few suggestions to simplify the process if you need a starting point:
  • Try wearing trousers that are even lighter than your shoes. If your shoes are ivory, this might be difficult. Maybe a patterned pant that contains some colour similar to or lighter than your footwear.
  • If you ever go sockless, this is the place to do it. Having to choose a sock colour here will just make things more difficult.
  • White shoes: just forget it. Unless you sell ice cream and it's part of your uniform.
  • Low contrast is OK here. It's summer; people have successfully pulled off outfits comprised entirely of off-whites. Going tan and ivory, grey and white, etc. is fine.

23.jul.2012 style
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