Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Elegance: The Red Slippers, Kansas not Included

As a continuation of my on-trend application of smoking/albert slipper/shoes... I have added red shoes to my collection (again, from Topshop). That means I have both tan and red shoes, which allows for extra variety. I am getting tons of compliments on both, which makes me wonder why they aren't easier to find!

However, this color was a bigger challenge for me to pair with outfits than the previous one. Tan goes with just about anything. However, red shoes aren't as popular with men at large, so there aren't really any accessories to match. In fact, the shoes are such a light color red (nantucket red/sailboat red/etc.) that I couldn't find anything in stores that was even the same shade.

Cutting out fabric (colors here are incorrect due to lighting)

Getting ready to sew

The result is that I ended up having to go to my local fabric store (G Street Fabrics) to pick out fabric that would match. I purchased a beautiful red silk, red poly silk-imitation, and light green silk/linen blend fabrics to make projects. The first two projects are pictured here: red silk cravat/ascot and light green linen/silk pocket square for accent color. I was in a hurry making them, so unfortunately I don't really have construction pictures. However, my technique hasn't changed on the ascot/cravats and you can find the instructions here on my blog! There will be forthcoming additional accessories made out of the fabrics, as I bought a yard or two of each kind.

See, it matches!

Check out my awesome complimentary color pocket square!

And another closeup so that you can see the color better.

I then came to the conclusion that the grey trousers had a tendency to make the shoes appear pink under certain lighting. As a result, I decided to try these accessories and shoes with my seersucker suit. I think this was generally more successful and I rather like the end result. This is also the first time I've ever worn the seersucker suit with an ascot/cravat.