Summer Shoes

People don't talk much about the seasonality of shoes, but once warm weather arrives it's time to move boots and dark colored brogues into storage and replace them on the shelves with shoes that are lighter in weight and color. Summer shoes wear cooler and complement lighter clothing, so at least some of those black, dark brown and oxblood choices should be replaced with chestnut, light tan and white, and at least one pair of oxfords switched out in favor of unlined slip-ons.

A man with the budget and storage space to expand upon the basic shoe wardrobe of seven or eight pair can constructively look at adding four or five warm weather shoes such as these:

• light tan punch cap oxford
• tan quarter brogues
• unlined light brown slip-on casuals
• spectator oxfords
• white bucks

Spectators and bucks are going to be weekend shoes for most, but summer is the time of year when it makes the best sense to wear slip-ons with a suit. The relatively low profile of a casual that looks too skimpy paired with winter suits is often just right under a lightweight worsted.

Of course, someone with plenty of opportunity to wear linen suits in the park is going to want to have more than one pair of spectator shoes. One of them should certainly be a combination of leather and white buck, but the second pair is when a man's imagination can take flight. I like Edward Green's Prestwick in the photo, a slip-on that combines chestnut leather and off-white twill.

I think it's reasonable to have as many warm weather shoes in a wardrobe as there are cold weather versions, though year-round models should always be in the majority.