please help me rate these shoes

[eddiecibrian]

i was looking at the shoe Appreciation thread, and i have to say, I don't fully understand it, everything seems very well built and there are attention to details, but everything there looks very traditional, the colors, is it geared more towards older men? the shoes remind me of attire that rich, older guys that I've seen in movies/tv would wear, it's a conservative look to me, help me understand it...

 

[glenjay]



i was looking at the shoe Appreciation thread, and i have to say, I don't fully understand it, everything seems very well built and there are attention to details, but everything there looks very traditional, the colors, is it geared more towards older men? the shoes remind me of attire that rich, older guys that I've seen in movies/tv would wear, it's a conservative look to me, help me understand it...

If all you have seen in the shoe Appreciation thread is very traditional styles, then you are just not looking hard enough. I will agree however that the majority of the shoes follow traditional styles. But, you can look very stylish in traditional style shoes.

The man’s dress shoe as we know it came from England, Italy, France and a few other European countries with long histories of making shoes, so they tend to be inherently traditional. Some European style houses have tried to produce non-traditional styles (Prada and D&G come to mind), but have done a poor job of matching quality to price in my opinion.

For high quality non-traditional shoes you could look at Berluti. And, if you go bespoke you can have almost anything you want built for a price.

If you want to stay in the $200/$300 range, and don’t like the traditional styles of Allen Edmonds or Alden, then you might want to look at Cole Haan (owned by Nike). Although the construction quality is not quite as good they do have a broader range of styles. You might also consider Johnston and Murphy, again not on par with Allen Edmonds or Alden, but you might find some styles you like.

I’m sure there are other members on this forum that have a great deal more experience in the sub $300 shoe brands than I do so perhaps they could suggest something that would fit your needs.

 

[Sanguis Mortuum]



i was looking at the shoe Appreciation thread, and i have to say, I don't fully understand it, everything seems very well built and there are attention to details, but everything there looks very traditional, the colors, is it geared more towards older men? the shoes remind me of attire that rich, older guys that I've seen in movies/tv would wear, it's a conservative look to me, help me understand it...

No they are not just for 'older men', the shoes in that thread are elegant and stylish shoes for any man; there are a few that I (being quite young) would not wear, such as tassle loafers, but even they can be pulled off by some younger guys.

What exactly do you expect good shoes to look like? Horrible, tacky, pointy or square-toed fashion shoes? Just because a shoe is traditional rather than 'trendy' and elegant rather than flashy and ostentatious, does not mean it is for old people (and that goes for all clothes really, not just shoes).

 

[eddiecibrian]

excuse my lack of an eye for style, still learning.....when i wrote that, all i could think of was oxford, uniform, and the college professor look, but with a little more research I'm slowly evolving my imagination, I do like at least one of my clothing pieces in my outfit to be "flashy"

my goal is to achieve a look similar to this, at least with those kinds of shoes, am i at least going in the right direction?