Five on Friday | How to Wear Red Shoes

For this week’s Five on Friday, I once again delved into the search referrers for the site, which are always an interesting way to find out what you guys are looking for when you visit. And the answer? Well, this week it seems a lot of you want to know how to wear red shoes, and, specifically, what kind of colours you can wear them with.

Now, I’m just going to start this one by pointing out the obvious: that you can wear ANY colour of shoe with any other colour you like. I mean, of course you can: no one ever died from wearing two colours that didn’t really “go”, did they? Also from the “this goes without saying, but I’m saying it anyway” files: style is subjective, and a lot of the time HOW you wear something is much more important than WHAT you wear. And with all of that said, here are this week’s questions, all of which revolve around the theme of…

HOW TO WEAR RED SHOES

CAN YOU WEAR A GREEN DRESS WITH RED SHOES?

There’s a saying that red and green should never be seen, and it’s certainly true that this can be a tricky combination to pull off: it’s very bright, very bold, and can look a little “cartoonish” if you’re not careful. Speaking for myself, although I love both red and green separately, and have a closet full of green dresses and red shoes, I don’t wear them together, because I know I’d feel like I was in fancy dress as one of Santa’s elves – not exactly a look I go for, if I’m honest.

That’s just me, though, and as I said, it’s all a matter of personal taste. I, for instance, rarely wear ANY two brights together: it’s just not my style, although I know plenty of people who do it, and who make it work. The two outfits above, for instance, both combine green dresses with red shoes, and I don’t think anyone would confuse these models with cartoon eleves, do you? In this case, it’s the outfits themselves which are helping make the looks work: both dresses have a “grown up” kind of feel to them, and the shoes are similarly sophisticated looking. If the models were dressed in short pinafore dresses with clumpy red shoes, however, the effect would be cartoonish: which is absolutely fine if that’s what you’re going for, obviously, but which does require a bit of attitude to pull off!

These two examples both use primary colours, however, which is probably the trickiest way to wear green and red together. An easier way to do it – and one I HAVE actually tried myself – is by going for more muted shades of each colour:

This outfit combines a mint green dress with coral coloured shoes: so it’s a variation on the “green and red” theme, but a much more muted one: in fact, when I wore this, I didn’t even think about the fact that I was breaking the “red and green should never be seen” rule – so definitely an easy one to wear!

CAN I WEAR A PINK DRESS WITH RED SHOES?

Red and pink is another colour combination many people are wary off, fearing that the two colours will clash. Actually, though, I think this can be a really striking combination, and it’s one I really love: when you think about it, pink and red are part of the same colour spectrum, after all, so why wouldn’t they go together?

The examples above both show hot pink dresses worn with red shoes, but pale pink will also look good, and will create a slightly more subtle look.

CAN YOU WEAR RED SHOES IN FEBRUARY?

One word answer here: YES.

(And yes, someone actually asked that!)

STRIPE DRESS, RED SHOES: HOW TO WEAR MY HAIR?

At first I though this was a bit of a strange question, but on reflection, I’m just glad to know I’m not the only one who sometimes feels I have to wear my hair a certain way with different outfits! Retro-inspired curls, for instance, feel all wrong when I’m wearing a biker jacket and jeans, and there are some dresses which make me want to wear my hair up, rather than leaving it loose. Unfortunately, though, this is one of those questions you can’t answer without seeing the items in question, because it’s more about style than colour. You can wear your hair any way you like with a stripe dress and red shoes: but the style of the dress might might make you think one particular style would look better than another – it all depends on the dress!

WHEN CAN YOU WEAR RED SHOES?

The last time I wrote about how to wear red shoes, I was quite surprised to get a number of comments from people saying they’d NEVER wear red shoes, because they feel they’re too “racy” (regardless of the style, apparently), and I’ve also had a few sleazy comments from men who seem to feel that women who wear red shoes are sending them some sort of “signal”. This kind of thing makes me really sad: colours are just colours – they don’t mean ANYTHING, and we should be able to wear red shoes (or any other colour of shoes) wherever we like, without worrying that people will make judgements about us because of it. I mean, seriously: is this 2016 or 1916?

Sad though it is, however, there’s no doubt that some people DO make those associations and judgements, so I guess it’s up to each person to decide how bothered they are by them. For myself, I’m not normally the kind of person who doesn’t care what people think of me, but in this case I honestly feel that if someone wants to judge me for my red shoes, that says far more about them than me, so I continue to wear them with pride. No one in “real life” has ever commented negatively, so as long as people keep their unpleasant thoughts to themselves, that’s fine by me!

WHAT TO WEAR WITH NAVY DRESS AND RED SHOES?

This sounds like a pretty complete outfit already to me: one of the best things about dresses is that they’re more or less and outfit in themselves, so they don’t normally need a lot of accessorising. If you do feel this one needs a little something extra, I particularly love silver or gold with navy