Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette. In today's video, we'll discuss how to
pair your shoes with a proper belt and other accessories to create a
harmonious, dapper, overall look.
Using different colors, patterns, and textures
are important parts of creating an outfit that looks great when paired together.
A certain continuity of different elements on your outfit will
help you look always well put together and interesting at the same time.
Managing your different accents in your outfit is a sign of style mastery.
The good thing is, it's easy to learn. When pairing shoes with a belt,
obviously, the leather color is very important; but also the texture of the
leather, and then to a certain extent, the metal buckle. Ideally, you want to match
the color, the leather texture, as well as the metal color of the belt, and the shoe
and other accessories you may have. At first it sounds easy, doesn't it?
but once you think about all the metal accessories, it's a bit more tricky.
Just think about cufflinks, for example or the buckles on your Monk Straps, or
maybe a briefcase, your watch, your collar pin, your tie bar, also think about watch
chains, or laser buttons, rings, including your wedding band and last but not least,
eyeglasses or sunglasses. So how do we start putting together a smart outfit
focusing on the belt, the shoes, and the accessories? First, you want to start by
putting the main components of your outfit together. By that, I mean your
pants, your shirt, and your jacket. In the second step, you choose your soft
accessories. That means pocket square, neckwear, and socks. If you want to learn how
to combine pants, shoes, and socks so you look the part, please check out this
video and to get a better understanding of how a pocket square a tie, or a bow
tie, a shirt, and a jacket can work together, please check out this video.
Once you've picked the main components, as well as your soft accessories, it's
time for the shoes. Once you thought on a pair of shoes,
choose the belt. Basically, you have to consider three components: the leather
color, the leather texture, and the metal color. let's start with the leather color first.
We recommend that you match the color of your shoes and your belt as
closely as possible. Fortunately, because there's a visual distance between your
belt and your shoes, it doesn't have to match a hundred percent; it just has to
be close, so visually, it appears to be the same. The more formal the occasion,
the more important the color matching aspect becomes, so that means if you have
black monk straps with a silver buckle, you should match it with a black leather
belt and a silver buckle. Obviously, matching a black pair of shoes with a
black belt is fairly easy because black doesn't come in any other shades.
If you look at other colors such as brown, blue, or green, it becomes a lot more difficult.
Why? Well, just look at brown. It comes in hundreds, if not, thousands of different
shades, and matching them exactly between your shoes and your belts is virtually
impossible, unless you bought them at the same time, when the belt and the shoes are
made from the same leather. So wearing black shoes with a brown belt or brown
shoes with a black belt is a combination that should be avoided at all costs.
To many, that may seem fairly obvious, but what about if you have brown shoes and
maybe a tan belt? Can you combine that? Again, you want the tones to be as close
as possible but you have a bit of leeway because of the visual gap between the
belt and your shoes. Just look at this burgundy belt here, for example, it has a
slightly different color than those burgundy shoes, but when worn on an outfit, it
looks very harmonious and well put together. Now, the second aspect is
leather texture, and ideally you want the texture to match. If you, for example, have
a belt that is a box calf leather and maybe a scotch grain belt, the textures are
not the same, but fairly similar. If you have a brown leather belt and maybe
suede shoes, the textures are more different.
The problem with brown suede shoes is that finding a belt that has the same
color and the same suede texture is highly unlikely, unless you have hundreds
of belts in your wardrobe. In those cases, it is more important for you to match
the color as closely as possible than the texture.
So that could mean that one is suede and the other one is a regular
leather or a scotch grain leather but color wise, people won't really notice it
from afar. Fortunately, most people will look at your belt from two feet away.
In a nutshell dark brown suede shoes with a dark brown box calf or Scotch
Grain leather are better than having dark brown suede shoes with a tan suede belt.
Of course, if you have suede dark green shoes and a suede dark green belt, that's perfect.
For that reason, if you buy a new pair of suede shoes or something with an
unusual texture or color, try to think about your belt option at the same time;
so maybe you can get a belt from the same maker because otherwise, it will be
very difficult to pair and match it. Now the less formal your combinations become,
the more leeway you have in terms of color and texture matching. For example,
Preston often wears a tie as a belt which is something he picked up from
Fred Astaire, on top of that, he's such a slim guy that he has issues finding a
belt that actually fits his slim waist. Tough life, right? By the way, to learn
more about Fred Astaire style, you can check out this video here.
So what exactly does it look like? Well, let's say you have a pair of brown boat shoes that
you wear with slacks. You can wear it with a brown woven belt, maybe even with
fabric accents or even have a two-tone pair of navy and dark red boat shoes.
You can pair it with salmon-red chinos and a navy belt or for example, if you have
yellow shoes you can wear a madras belt with it because it makes the whole
combination more casual, summery, and relaxed-looking. If you have two-tone
shoes or shoes with more than one color, it gives you more options because you
can pair the color of your belt with either of the shoe; both works.
Traditionally, I think people would wear a brown and white oxford more with a
brown belt, but if you have a white belt, that works too. As you can see, the white
belt is a little more contrasting and flashy, so you could weigh your options there.
Now that we got leather color and texture squared away, let's look at how
to match colors of the metal properly. Typically, with more formal
outfits, you have a more reduced color palette and because of that, matching the
colors exactly of your metal accessories become more important. In an ideal world,
all the metal accessories should have the identical metal shade and color.
So that means if you have a yellow gold buckle, you want yellow gold cufflinks, a
yellow gold watch, and a yellow gold tie bar or collar clip; and if you have a
silver platinum or white gold buckle, that means white gold cufflinks, silver
watch, silver shoe buckles, or maybe briefcase buckles. Now, if you want to take
it even a step further: if you have a rose gold buckle, you wear it with rose
gold cufflinks and maybe a rose gold collar clip or maybe a pinky ring.
So where should you start with a metal matching? Ideally, with your belt buckle.
Why? Because you already had to match it to your shoes in color and texture, and
chances that you have all your belts in the same color and texture in gold and
in silver and rose gold is extremely slim. Now, even if you start with your
belt buckle and you maybe have a briefcase or a portfolio, chances are, you
don't have those in all the different leather colors and metal colors as well.
For example, personally, I have a gold wedding band so even if I have silver
accessories, I'm not going to take off my wedding band and I'll just keep wearing it.
The more accessories you add into your outfit, the higher the chances that you
can't match all the metal shades. It's just important that you're aware of it
and try to match it where you can. If it doesn't always work out, don't worry, just
own it and wear it with confidence. I'm a clothes horse; I have many shoes and
many matching belts in color, but I often have difficulties matching the metal shades.
Honestly, it really frustrates me because basically, it would mean I need every
belt with a silver buckle and every belt with a gold buckle which means, I need
tons of belts - which costs a lot of money. If I gain a little bit of weight, I may
have to sell them all again and start all over again.
When I travel, I have to bring 15 belts to make it all work so it's just
expensive, impractical, and really frustrating. So I thought about it and
was like, well, if I could just combine any buckle I owned with any belt, I could
have a very small capsule wardrobe or both belts and buckles that would basically give me
all the combinations that I would ever need. I knew there were belt systems like
that out there, but when I looked at the leather quality, I was disappointed.
I didn't want to wear it and the buckles are made of cheap,
zamak material and it was just overall nothing that would work with a high-end
suit, a bespoke garment, or just for someone who cares about their clothes.
I wanted a belt system that looked like a regular high-quality belt with fine,
craftsmanship details and high-quality buckles that I could wear for years or
decades to come. So you're probably not surprised, but we
decided to just create it ourselves. Of course, we started with the best leathers.
We decided on a Fort Belvedere Green Saffiano leather lining because it
has the right creases for something that will always be bent on the outside.
We used really fine German aniline-dyed box calf leathers. It's leather-lined, we use
the very high-quality stitching, the belts are handmade in Portugal, from
Italian, and German leather. The real aspect we really paid attention to was the heavy
painting of our buckles so they don't tarnish or show wear over time.
Most of the other belt buckles I've had looked pretty crappy a year in, and I definitely
did not want them to happen with the Fort Belvedere buckles. We start with five
colors in box calf and different buckles in platinum and yellow gold.
We'll add different colored buckles, different styles, and more belts in the future so you can
build the belt system that works best for you and your shoe wardrobe.
Of course, another big advantage of the belt system is that you can cut the belt to size so
it works for you and even if you lose a little weight,
it's not going to be a problem. There's also enough holes and it will still work
when you gain a little weight; and because you can exchange all the buckles,
you're extremely flexible. If you're interested in the Fort Belvedere belt
system, please head over to our website where you can see the full selections
and the videos; how it works, and how you cut it to size, as well as the benefits
over other belts and belt systems. So in today's video, I'm wearing a medium brown or
chestnut brown Fort Belvedere belt paired with the gold, Benedict belt buckle.
I chose this belt because it matches the color and the texture of my brown
Norwegian shoes from Manina in Florence. I chose the gold Benedict buckle because
it works well with my gold Fort Belvedere cufflinks, which you can also find in our
shop here. I'm combining it all with a tweed sport coat that is green with a
nice color depth and an orange-reddish over plaid, To have a bit of contrast,
I wear a light blue twill dress shirt and a very soft brushed cotton which is
really comfortable to wear the tie is also from Fort Belvedere and made of an
orangey-red madder silk with a green pattern, which harmonizes well with my jacket.
My slacks are a hundred percent cent cotton with a slight herringbone pattern
and they're from Polo Ralph Lauren. I added a pair of brown and beige shadow
striped socks that tie the entire outfit together without being
over-the-top, because I already have a rather loud jacket and tie combination.