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Men's Leather Dress Shoe Type Overview Video - Balmoral Oxfords - Bluchers - Slip-ons - Dress
Boots
Hi. Iím Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men, Real Style. Iím going to be going over
a basic overview of menís dress shoes. And for those of you that want excruciating more
detail, go visit my website at tailoredsuit.com. I go into a lot more detail over there.
In addition, weíll be breaking out and talking about each of the shoe types in particular.
But I prepared choosing the four categories here. And I know that they can be broken down
in further categories. But for this basic overview, weíre going to stick with four
of the categories. The four categories are Balmoral, Bluchers, slip-ons dress shoes,
and dress boots.
So, starting off with Balmoral. This is going to be your dressiest dress shoe. And you normally
would wear a Balmoral with a suit, if itís really nice polished black tie. Here, in fact,
let me grab an example of one. The big thing youíll notice with the Balmoral is the closed
lacing system.
So, you have the leather here on top, which goes on top of the lacing system. Theyíre
going to be in dark, conservative colors such as black, dark brown. The styling is going
to be very limited. The example I just showed you had a cap toe
with the broguing on it. In fact, pull this up really quick. Weíve got the cap toe with
a little bit of the broguing.
The more formal versions will have a plain toe. Again, a very simple, a very sleek shoe.
Something that you wear with a suit, you can wear with black tie, but you do not wear with
denim. Donít wear it with jeans. It just doesnít look right. Itís too formal of a
shoe.
So, letís go on to Bluchers. Bluchers are going to be less, less dressy, although in
the United States, you see men wear them with suits all of the time. So, you can get away
with it. Iím not going to say, you know, itís the best thing to do. Theyíre a little
bit of sensitive to it in Europe. But if youíre in American [chuckles] you can probably, again,
get away with it.
Besides being less dressy, youíre going to see that Bluchers come in a wider range of
materials. So, youíre going to see them in suede, youíre going to see, you know ñ and
theyíre often called derbies, called saddle shoes, spectators. These are all variations
of Bluchers.
And Bluchers ñ the big thing is that itís an open lacing system. So, this part of the
leather has been thrown on top. And when it comes to colors and styling, theyíre going
to have a much wider variety of it. The example I showed you, those were light brown. Youíre
not going to see those in Balmoral Oxfords but in Bluchers you going to get ñ I mean,
just ask Elvis, blue suede shoes. Youíre going to see a wider range of styles and options.
I think Bluchers are pretty versatile when it comes to what you can wear with them when
it comes to casual wear. So, I think Bluchers go perfect with gray flannel trousers or with
odd trousers with a nice sport jacket. When it comes to navy blazers, those work as well.
But again itís not as dressy as Balmorals.
Now letís move on to slip-ons. So, slip-ons obviously, no laces on these and these are
shoes that you can sip on and off. Examples are going to be tassel loafers, monk straps,
Italian moccasins, Penny loafers. All of these are shoes, which are made to wear with ease,
so, with that they got a more ñ a much more casual flair.
I would not advice wearing them with a suit. Although, you know, they work fine with a
pair of dress slacks with an odd jacket or a sports jacket. They look great with ñ you
know if you want to go for a laid-back Mediterranean, especially in the summer, I love Italian moccasins
so much better, a lot better than sandals.
And I know for some of the experts out there, this is not a true slip-on but the monk strap.
The monk strap, youíll notice, this is the strap that gives it its name, but this can
slip on and off the foot. And Iím going to right now, classify those as slip-ons because
I do not see monk straps as something that you should normally wear with a suit. And
I think there are many cases of Bluchers that are going to be more formal than the monk
strap.
The last one is the dress boot. The dress boot is ñ it actually has an older history
than other shoes because if you think about it, boots and shoes, especially at the time
when men rode horses, it was something that you wore to protect your feet and your ankles.
And it wasnít until that we, in a sense, became civilized, and got away from having
to be outÖ
Öin the environment so much, that we were actually able to wear shoes which didnít
have to be protect us as much.
But dress boots, theyíve kind of fall into a position of ñ you wear them if theyíre
going to be functional. Otherwise, theyíre in the same category I would say, as slip-ons.
So, you donít want to be wearing them with a suit, unless, itís bad weather conditions
outside. And you want to actually be protecting your ankles.
So, dress boots ñ an example of them are Chelsea boots. This [chuckles] is not example
of a dress boot. This is a Western boot. So, there is a difference there. So, weíve covered
dress boots. Weíve covered monk straps. Weíve covered Bluchers. And weíve covered the Balmorals.
So, that is a quick overview of menís dress shoes. Thank you. Bye-bye.