Probably and someday it won’t be jarring to a segment of the population and might be the norm…at which point black will be obsolete for men’s shoes LOL. But it’s going to be awhile because my 24 year old was fretting about shoe color with a suit he was wearing to a wedding of a friend this summer - he wanted to wear a dark suit and he didn’t have black dress shoes and didn’t want to wear brown…so some 24 years olds still might care. I told him to go ahead and wear brown. He didn’t and worse a tan suit instead so he didn’t listen to his mom who was saying it probably doesn’t matter with young people anymore.
My S cares a lot about his attire. He has far more shoes than H and brings the shoes he thinks look right for what he will wear. He wore a dark charcoal suit with medium blue shirt and black shoes to the two weddings last month. I don’t know what he thinks about blue suits and brown shoes—I suspect he has an opinion.
My bottom line is that as a guest you need to look appropriate – just don’t stick out like a sore thumb and it is fine. If a man doesn’t have a tux and wears a dark suit to a black tie event nobody will pay any attention, if a woman wears a subdued floral dress to a black tie event that is fine as well. People should be paying attention to the bride and groom, not what any one guest wears.
^^Exactly. You don’t want to be that guest in the Awkward Wedding Photos. 
Isn’t that how fashion works, though - everything runs in cycles? W wore one of her mom’s old dresses to a party once and everybody loved the “new” retro dress and wanted to know where she bought it. I think current men’s tight pants and shirts are a throwback to the 70’s and early 80’s. Loose jackets and pants of the 90’s were probably a throwback to the 20’s and 30’s.
The brown shoes with blue suits is an interesting look that I kinda like, but I think you need to be younger to pull it off. It provides some visually interesting contrast and draws attention to the shoes vs black shoes blending in, so presumably you’d need a really nice pair of shoes to pull it off.
The blue suits today are very trendy with the brown shoes. My S started out looking for blue but ended up choosing a dark navy suit. He wanted a suit with a narrow leg pant and the jacket with shorter sleeves. The suit he got is Theory brand, the jacket is to his liking, the pants not quite as narrow as he originally wanted.
I think you also need to know your crowd. My future SIL bought a suit for my S’s wedding as he was the lone male guest at a wedding in slacks and a sport coat aside from some young boy guests at another wedding and doesn’t want to have that experience again.
I haven’t been at a wedding where anyone wore a tux in 20 years.
@mom60 We’ve been to 4 black tie optional weddings this year alone! LOL.
Well, if anyone is interested Macy’s is having a suit sake this Friday & Saturday. H will be trying on a few items, as his is a few decades old.
Trendier thing now is to have groomsmen wear suspenders and no jacket, which I am not crazy about.
D1 said as long as family members looked good she didn’t care about guests because she would just crop them out pictures if they didn’t look good.
At our recent wedding, the groom and his guys wore grey dress slacks, grey vests, light blue shirts, navy ties (groom had a multi blue striped tie) and black shoes. Really for this group it was perfect. Not one of them took the vest off all evening. How many times have you gone to weddings and the tux or suit jacket and tie get ditched after the pictures are taken.
I have to say, the guys looked terrific.
Wedding two weeks before…all the guys (including both dads) wore grey suits, no ties, brown shoes. You know what? It was fine, and the all looked great. It was well over 90 degrees, and apparently suits without ties are fairly common.
None of these were black tie or formal events. Just “look nice” events.
“Probably and someday it won’t be jarring to a segment of the population and might be the norm”
I’d argue it is the norm, at least among anyone younger than 40, hence my reference to it being very, very common at weddings and in wedding blogs, magazines, photographer instagrams, etc.
“didn’t listen to his mom who was saying it probably doesn’t matter with young people anymore.”
Sure it matters to young people, very much so. They just play by different rules and aren’t looking for the seal of approval from moms in their 50s and 60s who would be considered to stodgy, not hip fashion sense.
“Isn’t that how fashion works, though - everything runs in cycles?”
Definitely. All that is old is new again, with a twist. Men’s fashion isn’t all matchy matchy these days, hence the trend of the past few years to have interesting and bold socks instead of socks that blend in.
Oh…that too. The guys wore fun socks!
Yes, our conservative S is now wearing “fun” socks. It amuses us–now sure how much its due to GF’s influence or that he’s become much more fashion conscious.
Brown shoes and royal blue suits will be the poufy sleeve dresses and leisure suits of our time. Trends come and go, classics stay.
This thread is so informative. My take is to suggest the couple use navy as a theme. Let the men come in navy suits, without dictating color of shoes, but perhaps shirt color.
My son has been part of the wedding group in Colorado, where he wore a vest. It seems like navy would be an easy bridesmaid color .
If there was something I could say about my ex is he was very trendy and fashionable. He was wearing skinny pants, blue suit with brown shoes 10+ years ago. If I remember correctly he probably had more brown shoes than black shoes. I saw a lot of men wearing similar in Europe. Americans tend to wear black shoes at more formal occasions.
Yes agree Bunsen. Classic has been classic forever. The short jacket sleeves are the equivalent of cold shoulders…a trend but my advice as I was taught is don’t spend big bucks on it. I personally think men in those suits look like they bought an ill fitting suit but I do “get” that it is a current trendy look with the lankier guys and rare would be the person who didn’t succumb to a trend in an important photo history and wonder what the heck they were thinking a few years later. My big athletic guys would probably look silly stuffed into a two sizes too small suit look…this I know and so do they. Would be giggle time if asked to wear one.
My S has only opted for classic suits and thus far resisted these short, trendy suits that I don’t think look good on anyone. I’m glad—most men look good in the classic suits and I can’t say I understand the appeal of the shrunken suit look. Ugh!
Lots of athletic men wear the lean, fitted suits as well. It’s not just a look for lanky guys. Look at professional athletes. Personally, if well-made and tailored, I think they do look good.
Sorry dos, but sleeves that are 3 inches too short and pants that look like they were last worn in 8th grade is not a well-tailored look.