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We Got It For Free: Benjo’s Laces

When I was growing up in Southern California in the late ’80s/ early ’90s, all the cool kids wore Adidas, and the even cooler kids wore them with colored shoelaces. Lately, that seems to be coming back - mostly with boots, but also with dress shoes.

Benjo’s, one of the companies that makes such laces, sent me some to check out. I was given a wide assortment of colors and each pair of laces was waxed, which made them a bit stiff, but also more durable. They’re each 30” long, which means they’re most appropriate for shoes with three to five eyelets (ballparking, as it depends on how wide your shoes are). I put a pair of the dark green laces on my chocolate brown, suede chukkas, and I like them.

In the next month or two, it seems like they’ll soon have some new colors, new lengths, and some unwaxed and flat lace versions. Some will be long enough for bigger boots such as the Alden Indys. Keep an eye on their site.

Ochre, Burnt Orange, Rust, and Camel

It’s easy to wear color in the summer, but it takes a bit of thinking to do it in the fall. One way is to start with a foundation of your basic blues, browns, and grays, and then add one item from a non-traditional, but still autumnal, color. Racing green, burgundy, and eggplant can all be good. For example, a white oxford-cloth button-down shirt, navy sport coat, pair of grey trousers, and dark brown shoes would all look great with a racing green v-neck sweater. 

Some of my favorite autumnal colors, however, are in this muddy, orangish range that includes ochre, burnt orange, rust, and camel. I particularly like it in casual trousers such as chinos or corduroys. As you can see above, you can wear them with cream or charcoal colored sweaters, but I’ve also found that they work just as great with white button-up shirts and mid-grey sport coats.

If you already have your standard khakis chinos and dark brown corduroys, and you’re looking to incorporate some more color into your fall wardrobe, pants in this kind of muddy, orangish color can be a good place to start.

Via Esquire.

Q and Answer: Matching Shoe Colors with Pants Colors

Adam writes: Is it acceptable to wear dark colored slacks with dark brown shoes and a brown belt?  Usually I pair black with black and tan with brown while my dark blue slacks sit in a corner and slowly decay.  What’s the protocol here?

Earth-toned pants and suits will generally look their best with brown shoes.  We all know that.  But what about grey, or navy?

In England, the tradition is that black shoes are worn for business.  That means that traditional business colors, like dark gray and navy, are paired with black shoes.  If you’re English and work in a bank, it’s fine to leave it at that.

In the United States and Italy, the two other poles of the Western men’s style world, the rules are much less strict.  Brown shoes often look quite lovely with navy - see the gentleman at right in the party scene above.  It’s a slightly more casual look, certainly, but outside of bankers and lawyers in court, it’s tough to think of a suit-wearing daytime situation where it would be inappropriately casual. 

Gray is a similar situation.  Black is perfectly appropriate for situations where you want to tend towards the careful.  If you like a little more flair, though, brown can be a wonderful companion to gray.  Take a look at the fellow running for the taxi.  Black is more conservative, but brown a bit more dashing.  Perhaps because it suggests the more flavorful Italian version of men’s suited style.

Here’s a perfect illustration of a casual belt/shoe combination, courtesy of MistahWong.  Canvas shoes, rope belt.  Not the same color, but the same neighborhood.  Both casual.  Worn with casual cotton trousers.