How to Pick a Shoe Color Part 3a: Warm Metallics (Gold)

In this warm weather footwear series, I am reviewing our choices when we select a shoe color for our outfits.

Previous posts in the series:

Part 1: Match Your Skin Tone (Nude to You)

Part 2: Match Your Hair (Bookend)

Today we'll turn to one of the easiest and most fun options that will work with anything: metallics!

Some of the benefits of wearing metallic shoes:

• Metallic footwear works as a neutral, so it is easy to add to an outfit no matter the color palette.

• It adds shine, glam, and a bit of a dressy vibe to an outfit.

• It offers a surprising/paradoxical "low key statement" element to a look.

• It can create a harmonious bookended look when you repeat the metal color from your jewelry in the top half of your outfit in your shoes.

• Depending on your hair color, it can double as a "match your hair color" option.

• Depending on your skin color, it can double as a variant of the "match your skin tone" option.

As I discussed in my how to stack bracelets post, I divide my metals into 3 categories:

--Warm-tone metals: gold, brass, bronze, copper

--Cool-tone metals: silver, pewter, gunmetal, platinum

--Rose gold

In this post, I'll talk about my metallic shoes in the warm category, specifically two pairs of gold shoes. Gold is a great footwear color for me because I have a lot of golden blonde in my hair, so it's a very effective "match my hair" bookending choice. As I did in the previous posts, I am sharing some earlier OOTD with these shoes that I haven't previously shared on the blog.

Gold Loafers

I bought these Amazon Essential brand shoes in October 2019 for $23. (They are still available at Amazon for $23.70, not an affiliate link.) I think they're comfortable to wear (though they have basically zero support) and the gold is a pretty nice color, not too yellow. So far I have worn them 26 times, for a cost per wear (CPW) of $0.88, and they are still in good condition.

I wear these loafers with pants, not skirts or dresses. I like them especially well as a pairing with colorful pants (one of my "feels like me" style staples). I am most likely to choose them for outfits I've accessorized with gold or other warm-tone necklaces for the hair + jewelry + shoes three-peat.

Outfit #1: 7/6/21

Outfit #2: 8/26/20

Outfit #3: 5/18/20

Outfit #4: 11/8/19

Outfit #5: 11/4/19

Gold Pointy-toed Flats

I had a marvelous pair of gold pointy-toed flats from Nordstrom that sadly started to come apart at the back seam on one of the shoes. It's strange because I bought the same shoe in four colors at the same time (Dec 2014), and the others are still in terrific shape. So that pair was relegated to "summer rain commute shoe" status, and I immediately started looking for a replacement.

My non-negotiable criteria were (1) flat, (2) pointy-toed, (3) gold not too yellow. I probably should have been more patient, but I was feeling the sudden lack strongly and acted in desperation, buying these cheap-ass looking shoes from Amazon for $17 in February 2020. They did check the boxes for my non-negotiables but overall, and they are comfortable enough in the same way as the loafers (i.e., for general sitting around and occasionally walking a short distance at work or at home). But you just can't get around the fact that they absolutely do look like cheaply made Chinese shoes purchased online for $17...or possibly less (they are shinier than I'd like, the material is weird-looking, and the bows are definitely not great). Because I bought the shoes about a month before I started WFH at the beginning of the pandemic, I haven't had to decide whether they are too shoddy-looking to wear to the office. I'm OK with wearing them at home (and, apparently, sharing the photos with everyone online), so I haven't bothered looking for a different pair. I figure I'll continue wearing these and getting some use out of them while I'm WFH. They currently stand at 26 wears (same as the loafers, oddly!) for a CPW of $0.65, so financially, they were not a bad choice. And unlike my beloved $50 Nordstrom version that fell apart, they are still in pristine condition.

I wear the flats with skirts/dresses and cropped pants, and the combination is such a winner that I like the outfits even with the cheap shoes. Luckily the gold color is a bookend of my hair color, so the eye doesn't get stuck at the shoe; it's drawn back up to my head in a visual loop.

Outfit #6: 9/24/21

Outfit #7: 8/13/21

Outfit #8: 8/5/20

For comparison purposes, these are the Nordstrom ones before they fell apart. Don't they look much better? I hope to eventually replace my cheap Amazon flats with ones that look more like this but hold up better to wear.

Outfit #9: 9/17/18

To wrap up this post on an up beat, let's check out this extremely luxe gold-tone (fawn) bunny of a breed that has stood the test of time: the French Angora rabbit! They got the name because they were brought to France in 1723 from "Angora" (aka Ankara in present-day Turkey), but their history goes way back; the ancient Romans bred them to spin their long fiber fur into soft, warm, lightweight wool since at least 100 BC. Talk about a classic!

Do you like wearing gold or other warm-tone metallic shoes? Have you ever pulled the trigger too quickly on a "not quite right" item because you felt like you had to fill that wardrobe hole right now?

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