Black Tie Combinations

[Steve Ashton]

Just so we are all using the same terms.

The word brogue and its plural broguing refer to the pattern of holes punched into a shoe.

When I was growing up we considered any shoe with the pattern of holes to be one level down in formality from a shoe without the pattern of holes. In general, we thought of all brogues as day wear shoes.
This has gradually undergone a change and you now see brogued shoes at formal events.

(A brogue in the UK is what in the US is sometimes called a 'Wing Tip"
An oxford shoe is one where the bottom of the laces are closed.
If the bottom of the laces are open the term is 'Blucher'.)

But I still feel that a plain shoe (without the pattern of holes) to be more formal.

I personally do not own any buckled shoes. They come across to 'costumey' to me. Too much a part of the Laird's Plaide/Cromach look which, I personally, do not wear.

If I were looking for a very formal shoe this is what I would wear - Patent Leather or polished to a shine that you could see yourself in (A Spitshine).



But everything I have said is my own personal preference. I do not ask, nor expect, anyone else to follow anything I say.