How often have you seen men wearing stylish, designer suits, perfectly paired with dress shoes, however with shoelaces that were simply destroying the balance of the entire outfit?

Most men don’t even pay attention to their shoelaces, whether they are right for their dress shoes or right for a particular outfit. It is such a small detail, however worth exploring if you are doing it right or wrong.

Shoelaces’ shape and material

It is therefore important to pay attention to the type of shoelaces we choose, their color, but also their shape. For example, a brown pair of Oxford will look a lot more casual if paired with green or blue laces, compared with a matching brown pair of shoelaces. 

In general the narrower and rounder or finer the shoelaces, the more formal it is. Think about the sneakers or tennis shoes: they tend to have thick and wide laces. How would a pair of Oxfords look with those types of laces? Weird, right?

On the other hand, if you exchange the regular laces of your Oxfords, with flat, wider laces, you may actually look stylish.

If you want to take a step further for your dress shoes, you can match your laces with your bow tie. Example: satin laces for a satin bow tie, or velvet laces with a velvet bow tie.

Shoelaces’ color

As already mentioned earlier, the color of your shoelaces can have a huge impact on the overall appearance of your shoes and outfit. Usually, the closer the color of your shoelace is to that of your shoe, the more formal it will look.

We recommend you to follow this rule for conservative events. However, for less formal events, it can look great if you match your laces with your tie, shirt, or your pocket square. 

If you do not have a huge arsenal of shoes, combining them with different types of laces, of different colors, might make you look as if you have a new pair of shoes every time.