Desert boots and suits (and ties)?

[Guest]

Desert boots: crepe-soled chucka boots, that is. The classic model is made by Clarks. The British mods of the fifties and sixties used to wear such shoes with dark, sleek city suits. What do you think? Total aberration (rubber soles with a suit - scandal!)? Acceptable only with country suits? Just fine?

[Guest]

More of a thing for khakis and jeans, I would think.


pvpatty

[Guest]

It would only work with a safari suit.

Sator

[Guest]

Agnelli famously wore suede Tod's boots with rubber soles with his business suits. Admittedly he had the excuse of a serious foot injury which prevented him from wearing 'proper' shoes, but still, would you say that he would have been inelegant, were it not for that extenuating circumstance? Incorrect, inappropriate perhaps, but inelegant?

Also, what about Windsor's brown (even brown suede!) shoes worn in the city and with a suit? Don't you think that, mutatis mutandis, suede chucka boots would be roughly the same sort of transgression today, if not a lighter one?

radicaldog

[Guest]

Less silly than wearing sneakers with dinner jacket, but of the same genera.

If Agnelli wore chukkas with suits, he certainly didn't appear to be elegant! But, yes, medical problems deserve more attention and care than elegance of appearance.

RWS

[Guest]

to my mind, it does not have so much to do with the fact of wearing suede with a city suit, or even if the soles are rubber (though, admittedly, i reserve this for rainy days myself). No, the killer here would be the overall aesthetic of the Clark's desert boot. It is an extremely casual, somewhat clunky looking shoe - at least in terms of combining with a suit. I would seriously consider wearing a suede shoe with a suit, but it would at least have to have a somewhat more refined last than the Clark's.

alebrady01

[Guest]

Anyone do the sand dance?

[Guest]

You may have answered your own question - as you say the British Mods made desert boots work with a suit, or perhaps more often contrasting jacket and trousers (particularly paler coloured trousers). Do what they did and you won't go far wrong. All fashion rules are made to be broken.

[Guest]

Obviously if the last is sufficiently elongated and elegant, desert boots work as well as any suede shoe with suits and sports jackets.

Better wear them with sports jackets however unless you are in the creative professions in which case, do as you like.