Footwear

I kid you not. The first thing many women notice about a man are his shoes.

"My shoes?" you ask in disbelief. "Shouldn't the first thing they check out be something large and noticeable like my shirt or my trousers or my..."

Nope. It's true. Women check out mens' shoes.

To fully understand this concept, let's swerve off the topic a little bit. If you haven't already noticed, men and women are wired differently. And when I say differently, boy do I mean differently.

Women notice details. Now this is a rule you better keep in mind and make sure it stays in mind. The next time your girlfriend asks you "Honey, notice anything different about me today?", dont count on it being her new car or perhaps even a new dress which would be way too obvious. Check out the details man, details! Her earrings, her hair, her shoes.

So don't be of the misconception that if your shirt and trousers look alright, the rest of your outfit can go to hell - flip flops with socks, wearing black and brown leather together, etcetera.

Now that we've got that out of the way... you are going to stop wearing your basketball shoes with your jeans and we are going to start off with a list of the footwear every man should own:

Brown leather brogues

Brown leather has been the big thing this century and the last. Black leather just doesn't emanate cool as well as brown leather does, because it's well, black leather. Snore.

Wear it with:
Jeans
Khakis
A gray suit


Nonetheless, for a more professional working-man look, pair black leather brogues with a dark suit.

Loafers
Loafers are probably the most underused form of footwear, especially in Asian countries like Malaysia. From a night out to an afternoon at the beach, loafers can (and should be) be the cornerstone of any straight man's footwear collection.

Leather loafers by Cole Haan

Loafers are characterized by the flat front top portion of the shoe, and the right pair can actually make your legs appear longer.

Wear it with:
Jeans
Khaki shorts (preferably with brown suede loafers)


Now a lot of you are probably thinking "those two shoes look identical to me." Hello, sir. Remember the mantra I taught you a couple of paragraphs up there? Repeat after me - women notice details. Good boy.


Sneakers
Now, most of you will probably own a pair or more of these - but many of you will own ugly ones. Those fat nike Air Force Ones you enshrine on your shoe rack every night before you go to bed? Bin em'.

Sneakers can make or break you. Wear fat chunky Phat Farm sneakers, and you risk looking like a black thug from the ghetto (if you incidentally are, by all means, more power to you. You don't need this style guide.) Wear sneakers that you've worn since your grandmother's youth, and you will be mentally written off as exactly what you look like - a bum.

The key to picking a good pair of sneakers is looking for natural materials and quality construction. And remember - K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple St... nah, I won't call you stupid. One pair you can almost never go wrong with are a classic pair of black Converse All-Stars with a white sole and white laces.








Instant cool.


Wear it with:
Jeans
Khakis
Pretty much anything you dare to

And if you think you're really fly, wear them with a suit.