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Match shoes to clothes or clothes to shoes?

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Packard

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
When selecting your attire for the day do you choose your shoes and then an outfit to match? Or do you select the outfit and pick shoes that match?

I select the clothing and then rummage through my shoe closet for appropriate footwear. I always assumed that everyone did this. But that was before I knew about $1,500.00 shoes.

So which do you do?

Select the shoes first?

Or the outfit first?
 
#2 ·
I keep a meager shoe wardrobe of two pairs (one brown, one black). I alternate by day, allowing a rest between wears. Thus, shoes dictate the clothes.

On Mondays, the scheme reverses. I decide what to wear and then pick the shoes. Since both pairs have had a chance to rest over the weekend, I can select either.
 
#6 ·
Dr. François said:
I keep a meager shoe wardrobe of two pairs (one brown, one black). I alternate by day, allowing a rest between wears. Thus, shoes dictate the clothes.

On Mondays, the scheme reverses. I decide what to wear and then pick the shoes. Since both pairs have had a chance to rest over the weekend, I can select either.
Click to expand...
I too only keep one brown and one black pair of dress shoes, so I do the same thing, alternate to let each pair rest. This also leads to my shoes dictating my clothes.
 
#7 ·
Most days, I pick the suit first. Shirt is the next most common determinant, particularly if many of my most reliable shirts are in the wash. Every once in a while, though, I'll have a hankering to wear some other particular item, such as shoes, a pocket square, or even a pair of socks, and work backwards from there.
 
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#8 ·
Never owned a pair that cost that much (bless AE Outlets, and their "seconds" cordovans) but since I'm retired, I tend to think shoes first. Have five pair I wear in rotation, more or less, all reddish brown-based (no mud browns), and most of my daily clothes are casual and brownish, so it's not that difficult

When I was working, it was even simpler: grab dark suit (gray or navy based), grab shirt (white), grab tie (usually a burgundy base), grab two socks (black {yeah, yeah, I know, but life's too short}) make sure black shoes matched and go. Didn't even have to be fully awake.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
phyrpowr said:
Never owned a pair that cost that much (bless AE Outlets, and their "seconds" cordovans) but since I'm retired, I tend to think shoes first. Have five pair I wear in rotation, more or less, all reddish brown-based (no mud browns), and most of my daily clothes are casual and brownish, so it's not that difficult

When I was working, it was even simpler: grab dark suit (gray or navy based), grab shirt (white), grab tie (usually a burgundy base), grab two socks (black {yeah, yeah, I know, but life's too short}) make sure black shoes matched and go. Didn't even have to be fully awake.
Click to expand...
No sense being awake when you show up for work.
 
#10 ·
I start with the weather, then the activity/event/location, then the clothes, the shoes, the belt+metals, the outerwear. depending on the breadth of your wardrobe(s) you could mix up the last 4 anyway you like.

If you planned to be outside at a football game for example you might go from weather and event straight to outwear and shoes (or shoes then outerwear) and fill in the outfit underneath since your outerwear is what's being "featured" for the sake of comfort.

I recently read an article about an interior decorator who starts every house project by selecting a living room rug before anything and then working outward from there.

If you want to wear a certain pair of shoes or if you are more of a shoe lover than clothes horse I dont see why you couldn't build your outfit backwards, it just takes a different (and probably a bit unnatural for most) approach to coordinating everything.
 
#11 ·
I normally start with suit first, then find shoes to coordinate . .

. . . and will choose both dependent on meteorological factors.

Choice of suit can be affected by precipitation (suit next to go to dry cleaners moves to front of the line) or temperature (flannel for cold days) or mood (a capricious item even on the best of days).

Shoes would be chosen next, also subject to at least two of the three items above (temperature rarely affects choice of footwear).

Exceptions do abound, however.

I also avoid the stumbling about in a sleepy fog when choosing my attire for the day, simply by choosing it the night before (a necessity when I lived with someone who was retired, and who would sleep in every workday morning).
 
#13 ·
Most of the time:
1. suit/clothes
2. shoes

However, there are times when I like to wear a specific pair of shoes then I base my outfit on the shoes.

When it is raining a lot or there is potential for a long of rain, I wear thick sole Church's to work but that is more to do with function then with choice.
 
#14 ·
The beginning of this . . .

. . . is really what you do when you select an item for purchase in the first place. Do you try to envision other things in the wardrobe that might complement that potential new member? That goes for shoes as well as anything else, for me.

So, having already determined what the shoes are likely to accompany, I pick the outfit first, then the appropriately complementary shoes. Otherwise, I should have a pair of shoes for every outfit, like Imelda Marcos. Actually, I come perilously close, in fact:crazy:
 
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#16 ·
Packard said:
When selecting your attire for the day do you choose your shoes and then an outfit to match? Or do you select the outfit and pick shoes that match?

I select the clothing and then rummage through my shoe closet for appropriate footwear. I always assumed that everyone did this. But that was before I knew about $1,500.00 shoes.

So which do you do?

Select the shoes first?

Or the outfit first?
Click to expand...
I usually choose my clothes first, but about 1 time out of 10, I choose my shoes first (particularly likely for new shoes).
 
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#17 ·
I've never had more than two pairs of shoes to rotate, black and burgundy back in the days when I wore a coat and tie every day and now black and brown with my business casual. I guess this means that I selected the shoes first since I was alternating the two pairs of shoes. If I had been rotating more shoes I would have selected the clothes first.

Cruiser
 
#18 ·
Packard said:
So which do you do?

Select the shoes first?

Or the outfit first?
Click to expand...
The way I see it, they all must "go together" (as broad of a term that is) - so I choose them both first, if that makes sense.

Ive been getting into socks as a way to give some pop to the clothes. Navy pinstripes and black oxfords call for a royal purple sock. Really dark, chocolate-brown leather looks great with a bright yellow sock. Thick, muddy brown is uplifted by canary yellow.

A strong color next to leather can really make the patina sing imo.

Of course, YMMV.
 
#20 ·
First the clothes and then the shoes. While, as others have mentioned, for many years, selecting which shoes to wear consisted of choosing between the black or the brown ones, these days, the deliberations take a bit longer! ;)
 
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