Are brogues casual? Do brown brogues (lighter not darker) really go with suits?

[omjk]

I read elsewhere on SF that brogues are casual, and more academically, and interestingly, that the idea behind the brogue was to release water and mud from the shoe.

Growing up, they have always struck me as very smart and formal. Am I the only one? And is it really the case that these shoes are casual.

How about the semi-brogues?

 

[fuji]

They are less formal then a captoe or a plain toe so in terms of dress shoes they are casual. Modern brogues cannot release water and mud from a shoe. That is just the old ones where the hole actualy went through the shoe.

 

[JLibourel]

In the USA, at least, it is generally agreed that brogues are acceptable in all business situations. I believe at one time IBM mandated that all their male employees wear black wingtips.

 

[omjk]

Modern brogues cannot release water and mud from a shoe.

I wasn't expecting to take advantage of that function in London. Perhaps if I had gone for a dip in the Serpentine.

 

[Pengranger]

There are different types of brogues on many types of last. The more refined the last e.g. less bulbous, and the closer the welt is to the shoe, I believe the more formal the shoe will be.

As long as you aren't wearing a "country style" brogue, your shoes are likely to be smarter than99% of the people that you meet.

 

[JayJay]

I think they're great for both business and casual, but for very formal occasions, I prefer captoes.

 

[Avebury]

More versatile style around. Works with anything.

 

[Avebury]

http://www.fifecountry.co.uk/PRODUCT...pid=844&cid=35

You can also get veldtshoens from Hoggs and Alfred Sargent.

 

[gnatty8]

They can be..

 

[upnorth]

I consider only Longwing tips bluchers to be too casual for a suit. I catagorize all the other categories of brogues in dark brown or black to be suitable for business formal wear. Brogues are not suitable for black or white tie events, if that's what you mean by being too casual.

 

[omjk]

To summarise it would seem that there at leats 3 categories of occasions for different attire - casual, formal, and formal (black tie). First two, brogues good. Last one, brogues are OUT. I could not see myself ever wearing brogues to a black tie in any case. It seems counter-intuitive.

Brown brogues with suits seems to be sold as a fashion faux-pas by many suit wearers, yet others see it as a maverick mode of dress (one SF member said in another thread that the wearer would be seen as a rule-breaker in his office).

Are brown brogues with suits just wrong?

 

[upnorth]

Darker shades of brown especially those with antiguing or natural patinas are excellent choices with suits.

 

[Razele]

Though not a personal fan of most Full Brogue's, I appreciate them.

Mafoo's One Shoe is fantastic, as an example, and one I quite like.

It depends on the workplace and the country. In Australia, most people wouldn't even know what welting is for a shoe, so any goodyear welted shoe is going to look fantastic. In a conservative setting in a more sartorial aware culture, I'd imagine that black captoe's would be in order.

It's the one shoe that all men need.

Make sure you brogue near the capline.

 

[gnatty8]

Originally Posted by JayJay

I think they're great for both business and casual, but for very formal occasions, I prefer captoes.

+1

They are perfectly fine in either setting.. To convince yourself, sneak a peek at the footwear of your colleagues at work and rank where your wingtips rank in terms of dressiness.. It works, trust me..

 

[grimslade]

My father's dress shoe of choice was the black wingtip bal, and so I always thought of that as the business shoe. Of course, my sample size was small.

Regardless, they still have a certain association for me, and I'm quite fond of wearing them with suits.