Brogues and suits

[Guest]

Brown brogues with blue or grey suits would be regarded as an abomination in the City of London. Black oxfords or loafers are the norm.

Maybe, London City boys should be paying more attention to their footwork, rather than their footwear - before the whole bloody shooting match goes down the pan! The US$ is buoyant; the Garden Broom GB£ is sinking - very noticeably from here!! The trouble is that some folk can't see the wood for the trees. That's what I call an abomination! Even if some members believe it less than comme il faut to address these concerns!
NJS.

The £/$ rate is back to where it was a few years ago. $2 to the £ was never sustainable. Our American colleagues should not be too smug - Slick Willy and his Lady Macbeth are back!

BoB

It seems that BrR$1.63 to US$1 wasn't sustainable either - I just wish that those who regulate these things would stop playing monopoly with our real money (and making a packet for themselves along the way! Excuse for saying htis here? It affects the pursuit of the elegant life.
NJS

[Guest]

An ascendant dollar against the pound sterling should be a source of neither smugness nor frustration. For me it is an opportunity to indulge in beautiful English clothes that I might not otherwise easily afford, and support the artisans I admire so much. This is all very much to our mutual advantage.

I also understand that in New York, serious men do not wear loafers with suits. This in opposition to Los Angeles, where men tend to wear hideous woven leather low-vamp Italian-export tassel loafers of any color with everything.

[Guest]

. . . . I . . . understand that in New York, serious men do not wear loafers with suits. . . .

In none of the northeastern United States do serious men wear loafers -- "slip-ons" -- with suits while working. One might on occasion see suit-cum-loafer at church in summer (worn by a few of the very few men who still wear suits on the weekend -- or even attend services of divine worship!) or at seaside cocktail parties in the same season, but in the office, by a serious, wellbred man? I've never seen it.

RWS

[Guest]

In my experience, and I have travelled extensively in Italy on business, chestnut/cognac/brown shoes worn with either grey or blue tend to be of a much finer(for this read edge) construction than what we in the UK would consider a "country" brogue, and they therefore take on a totally different look.
It may be interesting to widen this a little and think about how the French manage to get away with black suede when wearing business attire..........
As somebody who, to my regret, routinely flies three or four times a week, I have moved to slip-ons as a way of making the journey through security a little less of a drama, with the often barked instruction to remove one's shoes, but my favourites remain a lightly patterned shoe by Crockett & Jones, named Westbourne. I would encourage you to have a peek at the C&J website.

[Guest]

In my experience, and I have travelled extensively in Italy on business, chestnut/cognac/brown shoes worn with either grey or blue tend to be of a much finer(for this read edge) construction than what we in the UK would consider a "country" brogue, and they therefore take on a totally different look.

True. The lasts are citified, the soles are thin and often they are not really classically designed brogues, but modern fashion interpretations inspired from the traditional brogue.

Costi