How to style your winter shoes
How to style your shoes in winter
As a London based Personal stylist, my most asked question when delivering personal styling services to my clients is ‘but what shoe do I wear with it?’’ ‘What boot will work with this outfit?’ ‘How will I know what shoe to wear?’ ‘But what if I don’t have the right shoe?’ ‘Will my trainers work with this?’
Sound familiar? Buckle up… (not sorry for the shoe pun…) and yes I did chuckle when it popped into my head. It's been a long day…
What type of shoes/boots/trainers do you need to own to work with your entire wardrobe?
So the million dollar question… Of course, there's no one specific answer to this question. The reason for this is that we all have different personal preferences, styles, clothes in our wardrobes, and different things we want to say with our clothes. We also have different priorities and budgets. For example, comfort over style or do you want a classic shoe or a trend lead shoe? The list goes on. You can combat this by discovering your style personality, if you aren't sure on what yours is yet check out my style personality blog here.
Personal Style is emotive - it provokes feelings from as simple as ‘Oh she looks lovely’ to ‘Oh wow I wish I could pull that off’ and everything in between. My role as A London Stylist is to work intuitively with my client’s emotions and help them understand how to reflect them in a logical way that shows their personality through how they dress. This also involves shoes, heavily!
Why is it so hard to get the right shoe in winter?
It's much easier to choose shoes in summer because it's basically sandals, slip ons or a trainer. The shoes are generally smaller eg a black flip-flop is far less noticeable with a pretty dress than a big black boot and a pretty dress. Winter shoes are bigger, bulkier and more obvious to the eye because obvs they need to keep us warm and protect our feet from the winter weather.
However, if you flip it, in winter you only really need a boot, a trainer, and a shoe… it's that simple too. We overthink the shoe. This winter I have pretty much only worn my chunky, flat, and Ivory boots (pictured immediately below). I've turned to converse when it's been dry but that's pretty much it. I've worn platforms twice for 2 weddings and that's it shoe-wise. I do wish I had some cowboy boots but I've not found THE pair yet.
My basic shoe and outfit formula
If your outfit is very dark/black = black shoe/boot/trainer
If your outfit is bright/light = ivory/white boot/shoe/trainer
If your outfit is in between = either work OR a metallic or neutral print like animal print will also look gorgeous.
The above is a very simplistic shoe formula to follow but can point you in the right direction pretty quickly. It's great for experimenting with winter shoes at the beginning. I'm not saying you need 3 pairs of boots/trainers/shoes but I'm also happy to enable the purchasing… If shopping overwhelms you, check out my blog on how to make the shops work for you here.
What's the reasoning behind my shoe outfit formula?
Black shoes are intense and need to be paired with an outfit as high in contrast to create a balanced look. A balanced look essentially means the outfit works and looks great. An example would be a black dress with print all over in a neutral and then a black boot.
A balanced look is an outfit that is balanced all over - eg shoes don't kill the color or style of the look. The outfit works and nothing is thrown off because of the shoe not working.
If you have a bright or light outfit on, eg wide leg trousers and printed blue top it needs a softer neutral shoe eg ivory to calm the brightness of the look and soften it.
If your outfit is a mix, you can also wear a mix of colours e.g. brown, metallic, a bold block colour or even a printed boot because there's no item creating loads of contrast anywhere on your body/outfit so this means you can get away with a boot that's not black or white.
Sorted.
What shoes do you need in your winter wardrobe?
Budget, lifestyle, and beliefs aside, what do we actually NEED in our wardrobe shoe-wise?
2 boots + 2 trainers + 1 heel + one flat shoe = perfect shoe wardrobeAbove is a great starting point as you can cover all occasions and dress them up or down easily.
How to choose what colour shoes you need
If you have a dark wardrobe go black boot
If you have a bright wardrobe - go light ivory/white
If you have everything - go metallic or one of the above options.
1 black boot + 1 ivory or metallic + 1 white high top + 1 metallic trainer + 1 platform heel + 1 slip on printed shoe = best shoe wardrobe
The winter shoes and brands I highly recommend
Below are as many options as I could find to illustrate my above formula.
Dark coloured outfit = dark shoe
Light coloured look = light shoe
Mid colour range outfit = anything especially metallic or print
My top Winter boot recommendations
My top Winter Trainer Options
My Top Winter shoe Options
Remember, shoes can make or break your outfit, the same as necklines, follow my basic formula and you'll feel more confident making the best winter shoe choices in no time. If you are still struggling, reach out for a complimentary style session and let's see how I can help you style your shoes with ease.
Thanks for reading,
Stylish wishes,
Sian
Personal Stylist, London