Summer Footwear

When things start to heat up outside, a wardrobe pares down also. Tweed and flannel gives way to linen and cotton jerseys go back in the drawer and polo shirts make their season debut.

The same goes for shoes. Down south, where your feet hit the pavement, changes are afoot.

It is a given of course that in the big scheme of things men do not have the incredible variation in style, functionality, materials and colors that women make when it comes to shoes. While some bemoan this situation, I consider it a blessing. Without the need for a separate shoe closet, light men have enough choice in their footwear wardrobe to create distinctive, classic and signature hot weather appears every day of the week.

As I see it, there are four broad categories on which to focus when getting dressed each morning. Each one dictates your overall choice of clothing and footwear equivalent.

Business Wear = traditional costumes, formal office wear, important meetings, conservative blazer and dress pants.

Traditional business laced shoes / tie-ins

Business Casual = general office wear, professional but not necessarily a formula, but a wider range of sports coats paired with dress and casual trousers, polo shirts and finer dress khakis or Chino.

Lighter colored dress shoes / loafers / suede bucks / rubber soles casuals

Social = go, lawn parties, social, but not necessarily random events

Driving moccasins / loafers casual with contrast stitching / boat shoes / canvas shoes

Weekend Wear = relaxed, relaxing, friends, errands or chores

Boat Shoes / Camp moccasins / Birkenstocks & sandals / canvas shoes

For me, shoes are part of a comprehensive wardrobe, shoes, both stand out as your outfit's foundation and also work with the equipment to tell a comprehensive story.

Business wear and business casual does not really change much during hot weather. When wearing suits, traditional black, brown and Cordovan shoes are still your best choice. These cap toe, Oxford, balmoral and drop-ins will also work with lighter shirt and tie combinations, you might want to try.

Some men would like to switch to light-colored dress shoes during the warm months. This can be a difficult trick to pull off, because softer colored leather - creams, light brown and other earth colors - can see both the affected and aesthetically disturbing. It requires a very specific type of equipment to provide the same level of professionalism and balance to the traditional darker colors offer.

Mixed media shoe, cap toes made of leather and linen, for example, can be elegant, but should be combined with equally stylish tailored clothing, not necessarily a suit. The combination of summery élan and boardroom sobriety does not normally work together.

Flax, cotton and Seersucker suits are a different story. For these classics, complete white or brown suede bucks the prototypical summer suit. Jaunty and timeless, white bucks in particular is the perfect match for the warm weather elegant / casual appeal of summer clothing. Dark brown or Cordovan lace ups and drop-ins can dress outfit up a notch, but I think that black is just too formal.

I have also seen white bucks paired with a dark navy blue linen suit. The effect was wonderful - very Great Gatsby, but not all of a costume. The suit was extremely well adapted and shoes were of very high quality. What did the work itself was the pairing of a linen "business" suit with the equivalent of summer "business" shoes. While still a little adventure in a traditional office, it is very natty.

Dressing for a business casual environment brings in a different class of footwear. When pairing your boots with lightweight chino, linen or other substances summer, penny loafers and boat shoes are traditional options for reducing the formality while still not straying into the territory of the weekend. While loafers are widely accepted as a less formal dress shoes, boat shoes and their outdoorsy brothers seen by some as an office interloper.

My fellow columnist Simon Crompton devoted an article recently for his distrust of boat shoes in particular. Although I almost always agrees with this sartorial point of view, I have to dig in my heels sockless and return to New England roots. Boat shoes, best reflected by the original Sperry Topside is a staple in most East Coast wardrobes. They are, in my humble opinion, a classic all-purpose casual shoe.

Canvas where teachers would be inappropriate, boat shoes, aka "dock side" walks in without a second glance. I would never say that they are accurate for all corporate casual environments, especially those with an emphasis on Business, but for most offices with a relaxed dress code they are just fine.

Part of the problem boils down to one's personal relaxed style. Clothes-wise, you are naturally relaxed or formal? My father, for example, has never owned a pair of jeans in his life. His weekend attire often consists of a button down oxford shirt, chino nice and deeply polished Brooks Brothers loafers - or during the summer, dock sides. It's just who he is.

However, I can wear old khakis with frayed cuffs, a faded polo shirt, ribbon belt and well-worn canvas shoes (or the dock sides, without socks, of course). When dressed for business, I naturally drawn to a formal European sense of style and preference for English made shoes. But when dressing more relaxed my American genes take over. And truth be told, that there is more of who I am when it comes to the crunch.