Your Standard Lace-Up Dress Shoe, or Oxford, comes with all the majesty of the office and no instruction book on what to do when you leave the office. Oxfords, however, are an easy shoe to wear if you think about what you’re doing before you put them on.

How to Style Oxfords

This is where we usually need a lesson in color. Black goes with everything, except brown. Brown goes with everything, including grey, but not black. Burgundy (cordovan) goes with everything including black. Keep this in mind when readying yourself to leave the house and you know you’ll be doing more than going to the office that day.

Your oxfords work well with jeans, but only if your jeans break in the same way your dress pants do. There’s nothing worse than wearing a tight and short pair of jeans with a gorgeous lace-up. “One of these things is not like the other.” Your lace-ups work well with khakis and linen pants as well, just make sure those pants break like your dress pants.

Under no circumstances should you be pairing your oxfords with things that don’t normally go with fancy shoes: shorts, light-wash jeans, and cargo pants. There are limits to your wardrobe. You can, however, use you lace-ups to make your day easier.

If you go to work with the intention of changing for a nice dinner after work just go with a Cordovan lace-up that will match anything you wear to work and anything you bring to change into. Be smart and you’ll look good. “

How to Care for Oxfords

All of your dressy oxfords are meant to be polished so make sure you stick with the right collar polish and buff them as much as you can (a shoe brush works great for this) and you’re off and running. The cleaning process keeps creases from showing too much and, in some cases, it will prevent creases from forming. Now that’s living the life.

Pictures of Oxfords

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