Welcome to the Gentleman's Gazette.
In this mini series about ways to lace shoes, we're going to discuss how to lace the Derby
shoe.
The Derby is a men's dress shoe that's not as formal as the Oxford but still they're
very high on the formality scale and it can be worn with suits and in the office hence,
you want to do the shoe justice.
the easiest way to change the look of your shoes and to make it look like a new pair
is to simply change your shoelaces and use a different color.
It's unbelievable how just a pair of red or blue or green or purple or brown really transform
the whole look and what's even better is once you have a few different colors, you can provide
a different look for the same shoe and you can remove the pair of laces and put in a
different pair of shoes meaning you literally have endless variations of how to style the
wardrobe all without breaking the bank.
First, you need to get the right kind of shoelaces.
What you want is either thin cotton shoelaces that are round or it can be thin and flat.
What you don't want is a thick nylon shoelace because it's simply doesn't suit the character
of the shoe.
You want them to be the right length about 31 and a half inches or 80 centimeters is
ideal for most Derby shoes or dress shoes.
Of course, one of the way to really change the look of your shoe is to go with different
colors.
if you are in a more conservative environment, tone to tone shoelaces.
if you want to be more colorful mix it up and use contrasting colors.
Basically the two proper ways to lace a Derby or Blucher shoe is to either have a bar lacing
which is horizontal and parallel or to do a crisscross lacing which is a little more
sporty and informal.
The crisscross lacing is better for less formal outfits such as jeans or chinos or tweed.
here's how you do it: First, put in the lace from the top on both sides and you pull them
straight and you want to make sure that the ends are the same length so you hold it and
pull through.
Cross them over, come down from the top, through the holes and pull through just slightly if
you want.
we have the flat laces, takes a little longer but it also looks great.okay, next, you always
want to make sure that you have the same kind of crisscross pattern, one is over the other,
which way doesn't matter, it just looks better if it's consistent on the same shoe.Finally,
you just tie the knot.
If you want to make sure that your shoes stays really laced up and doesn't open up, I recommend
this way to tie.
From the loop, you go over once, twice and pull it through.
That way, you get just the slightly thicker knot but it really holds everything much better
in place.
Voila!
this is how the Derby crisscross lace is done.
The other way to lace a Derby shoe is the Oxford way with a bar lacing, here's how you
do it: Since there are 4 holes, you want the ends to be the same length.
if they're five holes, you have one end slightly different than the other but for details,
you should take a look at our Oxford video.
Voila!
the
bar lacing on a Derby Shoe.
If you want to know where you get high quality shoelaces in different colors, click the link.
Check out the store and look at our selection of round thin laces in waxed cotton and flat
laces, i'm sure you'll like it.