The Thin Black Line

There’s an old style rule you might’ve heard: Never mix black and blue.

Personally? I’ve never been a fan of style rules, this one in particular. In fact, I count my Ralph Lauren raw denim jeans as my daily go-to. And when it comes to what shoes to wear with them, they’re always black.

In most of casual menswear, I think it’s fair to say that brown—in every shade, from a pale-hued desert boot to richly dyed cordovan loafers—is the favored color for footwear. It makes sense: As a color, it pairs beautifully with the blue of denim jeans or the dusty tan of a pair of chinos. No matter the shape or the purpose, though, brown shoes to my mind have always been imbued with a more rustic and heritage-driven sense of style. It’s a color that carries context, whether you like it or not. And while I can appreciate the chino-and-tweed or the rugged Americana aesthetic, brown’s just never felt quite like me.

That might be the reason I ended up stocking my wardrobe almost exclusively with black shoes. There’s something sleeker, stronger, more refined about a black shoe, more town than country. They’re the shoe of motorcycle riders with black leathers and biker boots, of power brokers with pinstripes and polished black-cap toes, and, as you can see in the photo above, of Steve McQueen on the set of The Sand Pebbles wearing dress blues and black gloss oxfords. Black shoes can be formal and polished to a piano shine, clunky and tough, or relaxed and casual(They can also be one of the foundations of uniform dressing, about which you can read more here).

Case in point: While the color palette of my shoe lineup might be simple, that doesn’t mean the styles are one-note. I’ve collected formal slippers in black velvet, tassel loafers in black cordovan, desert boots in black suede, cowboy boots in black calfskin, and countless others. Oh, and there are the heavy soled and thoroughly scuffed black combat boots I wear nine times out of 10, despite all the rest. Each pair’s dark color provides a versatility that makes a question like, “Do these shoes go with this outfit?” all but irrelevant. I’ve found that black shoes will suit nearly any look imaginable—not something that can be said for their brown counterparts.

Would I recommend my fanatical approach to monochrome shoe collecting to everyone? Of course not. The world of style is vast and rich, and the fun lies in seeing what makes you feel your best. To me, that may be a foundation of black shoes, no matter what I’m wearing, but any good sense of personal style should allow some room for evolution. Which is maybe why I finally caved this past year and purchased my first brown pair of shoes, a lug-soled chestnut brown motorcycle boot. I’m slowly warming up to them—I see how they can give a little more warmth to my well-worn blue jeans or add some contrast to an otherwise dark outfit—but I feel safe knowing that my closet of black footwear will always be waiting in the wings.