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I'm working in a satellite office for a V50 firm as an SA in the Silicon Valley area. I have been trying to get a pulse on the right shoes for business casual for my office, but all of the associates are women, and the male partners tend to eschew a dress code and wear polos with jeans or shorts. I don't feel comfortable following their lead to go that casual, and I suspect they would disapprove if I did.

I've been wearing button downs with slacks, paired with suede shoes of various brown shades. For gray slacks, which shoe should I wear? I'm thinking I should wear some type of black shoe? Black captoe oxfords are too formal, right? Black loafers then? Black slacks are too formal, right?

I want to make sure that leather loafers are not too casual...

nobody will care

Loafers are the way to go. I"m at a F500 company (think big oil) this summer, and most of the male attorneys wear loafers or similar.

For reference, I generally wear brown leather loafers, slacks (navy, gray) and a regular dress shirt (white, light blue, something a windowpane-type print. Very conservative). Nobody in the office wears a tie or jacket, and I am usually dressed a step above the other male attorneys in the office. The chief attorney (head of the department) usually wears khakis and a dress shirt.

Dress like the all the men do.

Loafers are awful more often than not and rarely tcr.

It depends on how many pairs of shoes you intend to own. If only a few (from the sounds of things), get a pair of versatile shoes that work in both a business casual and business formal setting. A pair of black Allen Edmonds Park Avenues will go a long way.

Anonymous User wrote:Loafers are awful more often than not and rarely tcr.

It depends on how many pairs of shoes you intend to own. If only a few (from the sounds of things), get a pair of versatile shoes that work in both a business casual and business formal setting. A pair of black Allen Edmonds Park Avenues will go a long way.

park aves look stupid in business casual. loafers are much more credited

Desert Fox wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Loafers are awful more often than not and rarely tcr.

It depends on how many pairs of shoes you intend to own. If only a few (from the sounds of things), get a pair of versatile shoes that work in both a business casual and business formal setting. A pair of black Allen Edmonds Park Avenues will go a long way.

park aves look stupid in business casual. loafers are much more credited

Black cap toes are definitely harder to dress down and can look stupid depending on how "casual" your business casual is. Though, if you're wearing charcoal slacks and a dress shirt they'll look fine. A pair of brown/chili cap toes can go either way though and work with just about anything.

God I hate loafers in any setting. Black caps are easy to dress down if you have even the most basic sense of how to match things, and black is even easier to match than brown. Personally I'd do 5th ave's over parks but both are fine.

depends on how prestigious the firm is tbh but these are usually a safe choice. if your firm does top tier work consider snakeskin.

Definitely loafers over cap toes for silicon valley. Anyone saying caps clearly hasnt worked in the bay. Half the attys there wouldn't even know what that is. Even loafers are gonna be some of the dressiest shoes being worn that day at many firms

Desert Fox wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Loafers are awful more often than not and rarely tcr.

It depends on how many pairs of shoes you intend to own. If only a few (from the sounds of things), get a pair of versatile shoes that work in both a business casual and business formal setting. A pair of black Allen Edmonds Park Avenues will go a long way.

park aves look stupid in business casual. loafers are much more credited

AEs are so comfy though. I'm glad I'm not in SV where I assume dress shoes means square toed pleather skechers. I'll gladly wear dress shoes with business casual (just don't do black shoes with khakis or whatever and it's fine).

Ive always been a fan of plain toe bluchers for business casual

imalreadyamember? wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Loafers are awful more often than not and rarely tcr.

It depends on how many pairs of shoes you intend to own. If only a few (from the sounds of things), get a pair of versatile shoes that work in both a business casual and business formal setting. A pair of black Allen Edmonds Park Avenues will go a long way.

park aves look stupid in business casual. loafers are much more credited

AEs are so comfy though. I'm glad I'm not in SV where I assume dress shoes means square toed pleather skechers. I'll gladly wear dress shoes with business casual (just don't do black shoes with khakis or whatever and it's fine).

I'll take wearing jeans and casual shoes over playing dress up to be "fancy" or wtv any day

Dynamite wrote:I'm working in a satellite office for a V50 firm as an SA in the Silicon Valley area. I have been trying to get a pulse on the right shoes for business casual for my office, but all of the associates are women, and the male partners tend to eschew a dress code and wear polos with jeans or shorts. I don't feel comfortable following their lead to go that casual, and I suspect they would disapprove if I did.

I've been wearing button downs with slacks, paired with suede shoes of various brown shades. For gray slacks, which shoe should I wear? I'm thinking I should wear some type of black shoe? Black captoe oxfords are too formal, right? Black loafers then? Black slacks are too formal, right?

I want to make sure that leather loafers are not too casual...

You need a woman in your life to answer these sort of things. Doesn't matter what kind, mom, significant other, neighbor with the cats. Someone.

Catsinthebag wrote:

Dynamite wrote:I'm working in a satellite office for a V50 firm as an SA in the Silicon Valley area. I have been trying to get a pulse on the right shoes for business casual for my office, but all of the associates are women, and the male partners tend to eschew a dress code and wear polos with jeans or shorts. I don't feel comfortable following their lead to go that casual, and I suspect they would disapprove if I did.

I've been wearing button downs with slacks, paired with suede shoes of various brown shades. For gray slacks, which shoe should I wear? I'm thinking I should wear some type of black shoe? Black captoe oxfords are too formal, right? Black loafers then? Black slacks are too formal, right?

I want to make sure that leather loafers are not too casual...

You need a woman in your life to answer these sort of things. Doesn't matter what kind, mom, significant other, neighbor with the cats. Someone.

Can you be my special woman?

ballouttacontrol wrote:Definitely loafers over cap toes for silicon valley. Anyone saying caps clearly hasnt worked in the bay. Half the attys there wouldn't even know what that is. Even loafers are gonna be some of the dressiest shoes being worn that day at many firms

Thanks for the advice, I am definitely leaning toward this approach.

Desert Fox wrote:Dress like the all the men do.

The crux of the problem is that I'm the only male associate...all of the males in the office are partners, who have eschewed any dress code. All the associates are women.

Dynamite wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:Dress like the all the men do.

The crux of the problem is that I'm the only male associate...all of the males in the office are partners, who have eschewed any dress code. All the associates are women.

Dress like the job you want bro.

crocs

Wear the darkest brown shoes you already have with grey. No need for black with grey (or any color slacks for that matter). If you want to be up on current and modern fashion there's no need for a black shoe, because you'd only wear it with a black suit (or tux). And buying a black suit is about the most newb suit you can buy.

Black shoes are acceptable and you certainly wont go wrong, but fashion says go brown and there's no need for black. Black is also quicker to look dirty/old/sloppy if you don't shine them.

IMHO, but I know what I'm talking about, even though many of you will certainly disagree (you're either old school or military).

Anonymous User wrote:Wear the darkest brown shoes you already have with grey. No need for black with grey (or any color slacks for that matter). If you want to be up on current and modern fashion there's no need for a black shoe, because you'd only wear it with a black suit (or tux). And buying a black suit is about the most newb suit you can buy.

Black shoes are acceptable and you certainly wont go wrong, but fashion says go brown and there's no need for black. Black is also quicker to look dirty/old/sloppy if you don't shine them.

IMHO, but I know what I'm talking about, even though many of you will certainly disagree (you're either old school or military).

If you were actually confident IYHO then you wouldn't have posted this anonymously IMHO