I am getting married on Memorial Day and I will be wearing a navy suit with a silver tie and a pink boutonniere. My fiancee will be  wearing an ivory vintage dress. Her bridesmaids are wearing  silver/gray. The wedding’s feel will be elegant but summery and laid back. What color shoes should I wear? I don’t want  to distract from the wedding’s color scheme, so I worry about wearing a brown shoe. Also, if you have particular shoes to recommend, I would welcome any suggestions.

 Dear David,
If you want your footwear to compliment the wedding party’s colour palette we would recommend that you stick to basic black and stay away from browns or tans. Wear a pair of black full brogue dress shoes with your navy suit, silver tie and pink boutonniere. Mr Hare makes fantastic men’s shoes, we especially their Pacheco brogues. Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss and Paul Smith also make widely available, classic and dapper men’s dress shoes in a variety of styles.

 I’m a 22 year old straight boy from Italy and I really like the over-the-knee boots trend. I am into wearing them once in a while like some simple, flat boots above jeans. In my opinion these boots look really unisex and if worn with simplicity and in a linear and casual way should look good even on guys. What’s your opinion? Shall I try it? Some girls told me it’s really ok, it can be also very chic but some of them say  absolutely no. What I don’t understand is why there is so much  prejudice about this… after all boots were first made for men and the look that I have in mind is certainly not provocative or offending.

 Dear Giulio,
For Fall/Winter 2009 and Fall/Winter 2010 a few designers did show men wearing just-below-the-knee boots. Even Pharrell Williams (an American music producer, musician and fashion designer) dared to wear a pair of knee-high boots over loose jeans to a well-publicized event. However, we have only seen one man in knee-high riding boots in our North American city (it was at Toronto Fashion Week and he looked great!) but that might just be because, at least fashion-wise, North America is much more conservative when compared to Europe.

A man wearing over-the-knee boots is definitely a fashion risk and will elicit some double-takes and sideways glances but let them stare! If you do decide to go for this look we’d be very interested to see how it turns out and we would advise that confidence will be your very best accessory. Simple, streamlined boots, similar to riding boots, tucked into slim (but not overly tight) jeans and paired with a blazer could make for a very dapper, Ralph Lauren-type look. Keep it sleek and classic with a sporty-touch and who knows, you might find yourself on the forefront of a men’s footwear trend.