Shoes can make or break an outfit and an event. The comfort level and appearance of the shoes that you wear to a black tie event can be the difference between feeling confident and amazing about yourself and feeling like you could look a lot better. When you’re shopping for a pair of shoes for a black tie event, there are a few different factors that you should carefully consider before spending any money.

The quality

The better the quality of the shoes that you buy, the more comfort you will experience – or so they say. This isn’t necessarily true, however, especially if you buy a brand new pair of shoes to wear for the event. Leather shoes, for example, are amazingly comfortable once you have worn them in and gotten used to them, but if you buy a pair and try to wear them to walk around for several hours straight away, you might find that you have problems. You can buy leather shoes from companies such as Roger David, and if you have a few weeks before the event, that’s plenty of time to get used to them and make sure that they aren’t going to hurt your feet on the night.

The cost

If you’re only going to wear the shoes a couple of times, you probably don’t want to spend a huge amount of money on them. Depending on the event and how special it is, you might not want to worry about the cost. For example, if you’re going to be a best man at your friend’s wedding or you’re getting married yourself, you can definitely afford to splash out a little bit on a top quality pair of shoes. Remember that after the event you can still wear the shoes whenever you need to, so you’ll never be in need of a pair of shoes for a black tie event again.

The colour

This is a very important part of choosing your shoes for a black tie event. It’s important to think about the colour of your shoes in relation to what you’re going to be wearing on the night. For a black tie event, it’s definitely safe to go with a black pair of shoes. The great thing about black shoes is that they can be worn with any colour, so if you eventually choose a dark blue suit, for example, you’ll still be able to wear black shoes. For black tie events, it’s customary to wear a black suit, so keeping everything black will ensure you don’t make an unfortunate fashion faux pas.

The appearance

You will also need to consider the general appearance of your shoes. They should look formal rather than casual, so head over to the formal section when you go shopping. You don’t necessarily have to buy shoes with laces – you can sometimes get away with slip on shoes depending on the style.