Loafers.....convince me I should like them.

[Made in California]

Originally Posted by Sesame Seed

... overall, they aren't practical.

But this is what makes them awesome. The idea is that everyone who goes for comfort gets sneakers and everyone who goes for Courtroom Appropriate wears oxfords, so the people who are left wearing loafers the coolest, suavest, most interesting and fashionable people in existence. They, on average, make 22% more than their peers, are better looking, and have better sex lives. Fact.

 

[Bentley]

I think oxfords usually look better. However, loafers are often more comfortable and if nothing else they give you another option to change up your look in a small way.

 

[bringusingoodale]

I like how someone earlier makes the case for loafers as that middle ground between office attire oxfords and daily sneaker-wearer. This is why I started wearing loafers. I think they come off as sneakers to some people, and then there are some people who think they are dress shoes just because they aren't sneakers.

What's with the "they are not practical" premise? They are shoes you slip on. This is as practical as it gets, provided they protect your feet and they don't slip off. Besides since when are we supposed to be concerened with pracitcally when it comes to clothing? How are ties practical. If anything they are dangerously impractical --> http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=222982

 

[Leaves]

Senior (say 55-65 for clarification) execs, lawyers and bankers here in Stockholm, Sweden wear a lot of black penny loafers. I'm not 100% sure but most likely it's a kind of statement, like a power tie kind of thing. Or maybe they are just a little lazy. Personally I go for Lazy Man's Oxfords. Perfect compromise.

 

[coldbrew]

Easy to slip on, elegant and they look great when the trousers are cut at the right length.

 

[checksformeccs]

You couldn't possibly wear an uglier shoe than the Birkenstock so you should wear loafers.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

I wonder in the intervening 9 years since this thread started, the OP has been convinced to try loafers?

 

[7_rocket]

Why convince you? Don't wear them if you don't like them. There are lots of fun and attractive options.

Smart man.

 

[mhip]

Please............like them.

 

[Keith Taylor]

I wonder in the intervening 9 years since this thread started, the OP has been convinced to try loafers?

I’d say the odds are pretty good. Like the OP I had no interest in loafers for years, not because I’d been forced to wear them as a child but because they were ‘dad shoes’. They were the kind of things my dad would wear on the weekend in the 80s, the perfect hybrid shoe for a round of golf then a drink at the 19th hole with uncle Terry, each of them also modelling this season’s blandest tan slacks, beige socks and embarrassing sweaters. I had no sartorial aspirations in the 80s, but if I had then loafers would be on the far end of the universe to those aspirations. They were dull parenthood in shoe form.

Now I’m roughly the same age as my dad was in the 80s, and loafers suddenly and magically tick aaaaalllll the right boxes for me. I picked up a pair of pretty innocuous Zegna suede pennyloafers a while back for almost nothing on eBay (the first hit’s always free, right?), and I was surprised by how comfortable they felt and how well they went with everything. Before I knew it I was clicking the buy button on a pair of sleek Cifonellis, and now I’m turning tricks in a cheap motel to pay for a pair of Peluso blue suede loafers with tassels. Tassels! Good God, what have I become?

The only bright spot of my addiction is that I don’t have a snarky pain ********** child to judge my choices

 

[Buffon.bj]

I very much like how loafers look but always struggle with them actually fitting; therefore I have yet to find a pair of loafers that would be actually comfortable to use. What I require of a loafer is 1) tight heel (my heel is small) 2) low instep (quite flat feet) and 3) wider forefoot, with especially the widest part of the shoe quite far down the shoe. I haven't found a pair that would tick all these boxes.

The closest so far has been a pair of Sanders Aldwyches in size UK10,5 with an insole; I normally wear a 9,5 in shoes. The good thing about the pair is that the heel is quite high, so I can walk in them quite well even though it is a bit too voluminous for my foot. Carlos Santos in 9,5 was close, but not quite wide enough in the forefoot, and same with Cavour loafers.

 

[Alan Bee]

I very much like how loafers look but always struggle with them actually fitting; therefore I have yet to find a pair of loafers that would be actually comfortable to use. What I require of a loafer is 1) tight heel (my heel is small) 2) low instep (quite flat feet) and 3) wider forefoot, with especially the widest part of the shoe quite far down the shoe. I haven't found a pair that would tick all these boxes.

The closest so far has been a pair of Sanders Aldwyches in size UK10,5 with an insole; I normally wear a 9,5 in shoes. The good thing about the pair is that the heel is quite high, so I can walk in them quite well even though it is a bit too voluminous for my foot. Carlos Santos in 9,5 was close, but not quite wide enough in the forefoot, and same with Cavour loafers.

@Buffon.**

Narrow heel, check
Low instep (flat feet), check
Wide forefoot, check ....

Go custom. RTW that fits? It don't exist ....

Alan Bee

 

[Buffon.bj]

@Alan Bee Those are beautiful! It might well be that such loafers are impossible to find in RTW. However, being a PhD student, my budget isn't quite up there for a pair of bespoke loafers, I'm afraid. That said, it could be a nice investment some day, especially since I know a bespoke shoemaker here in Finland who I would love to support.

 

[Bic Pentameter]

I am really getting into loafers.

Here are some photos of versions that I like.