Belt vs. Shoes: Casual Mode

[Lafont]

Regarding the old rule about brown shoes with brown belt, black shoes with black belt - how would one apply it to very casual dress?
I have for summer my year-round black dress shoes, my new Born black leather sandals, and my mostly black and silver Asics athletic shoes. I save the black dress shoes for dress shirt, usually tie, etc. and wear the no-nonsense black RL Polo belt with brass buckle with it. The question is about the black sandals. I usually wear these with shorts but sometimes with long slacks; how would it be if I wore the brown sandals with my brown braided belt with the shorts or long slacks? Only the simple black leather belt? Should that rule basically be carried out only with dress? It certainly shouldn't apply with black sneakers....

[porcelain monkey]

I think as long as it is in the same family it's fine. With sneakers, perhaps a cloth or nylon belt with some black in it.

My question is with suede. What color belt with lighter suede shoes. As long as it is brown is it Ok, or should it be light brown to match the shoes more exactly.

[Lafont]

These Asics are actually mostly rubber and nylon (running shoes) but perhaps that's going a bit too far, even for us diehards. In this age of so many flip-flops (of all colors and textures) being seen at so many inappropriate places (subject of one of my recent ranting threads which ended up 70 responses so far) perhaps one shouldn't care about what belt to wear with leather sandals. Yes, something close to the black for the belt might be fine - particularly when the occasion is quite casual, which it almost always is when I wear my sandals. Nevertheless, I do have this black leather belt and I was inspired to wear it yesterday at the resort town of Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH with my black Borns, in one of the few kinds of business districts where even I am not bothered all that much seeing flip-flops.