Well cut, sober but high on style – this is the mantra to follow when buying shoes for the office.
It appears simple at first glance, but it is not. Dressing for the office is not as elementary as it first appears. There are many ways you can get it wrong. But when you do get it right, the result is a well-dressed persona with loads of oomph and confidence.
Once you’ve got your office wear sorted out – just go online and check out the latest styles and cuts on leading fashion sites like Jabong – you can begin to pay attention to your footwear. The right footwear is crucial: you want to present a clean, sophisticated look, so your shoes must have the latest styles and be immaculately maintained.
Let’s get straight off the bat here and declare that office footwear is more about comfort than being fashion forward. Some of us spend long days on our feet, and the shoes must offer superior cushioning and heel and arch support. On the other hand, certain places of work demand a certain kind of footwear – fashion houses, for example, demand strappy shoes – and wearing anything else would be a sartorial bloomer of the worst kind.
Unless your place of work has a strict code for footwear – no high heeled, noisy shoes or flip flops, for example – you have the freedom to choose whichever style of footwear you most prefer. But your selection must be tempered with the knowledge of which type of footwear and colours go well with your office wardrobe.
We’ve compiled a basic primer on the kind of office footwear that both men and women can choose.
Shoes for men
Men’s footwear has often been confined to just a few basic styles over the years. But the times are changing, and men’s fashion is radically different than it used to be. Today, the accent is on metro sexual dressing, and mixing styles and palettes even for the workplace. Where earlier generations of office goers would stick to baggy trousers and chunky laced leather shoes, men today wear slim fit chinos, ankle-length straight fit linen pants and also loose denims on casual dressing days.
Naturally, this shift in clothing necessitates a shift in men’s footwear also. Numerous footwear brands like Lee Cooper shoes are available on leading fashion sites like Jabong, catering to the uber cool male office goer. Men can choose from Moccasins, brogues, Oxfords, boots and slim trainers for office footwear. The cardinal rule for men’s footwear is to not play ‘matchy-matchy’ with your clothes: instead of matching the colour of your shoes and pants, do pick colours like black, deep brown, navy and tan that can go with most of your trousers.
Hot tip: Pick formal Lee Cooper shoes and a pair of boots, as also trainers and brogues in other brands.
Shoes for women
Women have umpteen varieties of shoes for work, but some categories are more practical than others. For example, a pair of kitten heels is far friendlier on the feet than a pair of five-inch stilettos. On the other hand, a pair of trainers may not be the best fit for the workplace, unless your office has no dress code and casual dressing is the norm.
When it comes to women’s footwear for the office, these categories are the preferred choice: sandals, kitten heels, open toed pumps, low heeled wedges and brogues. Of course, the kind of footwear you pick depends on what you are wearing to work that day.
Hot tip: Dress your feet for your commute and all day comfort. Stow away a pair of stilettos in your office locker and slip them on your feet only at work.
