Okay, so I bought the canvas shoes after all, after stressing a bit about my footwear in two previous posts (here and here) and it occurs to me that some readers may be wondering why it mattered in the slightest. Canvas, leather - who cares, apart from Grant? Oxfords, bluchers - surely just a choice based on the aesthetics of the name? Heck, why am I stressing out about what I will wear for the wedding at all? Why not simply chuck on a t-shirt with one of those tuxedo prints and be done with it?
Well, if you've read this far, I'll assume you either want to know the answer or are bored enough to let your eyes continue scrolling down.
The skinny: I don't want to look or feel as though I am going to work.
Okay, so it's obvious for the ladies that the way they dress for work will be different to the way they dress at their wedding. This is not so for chaps. Sure, there are some obvious exceptions. If your job requires you to don high-visibility orange vests, goggles and a hard-hat, it's likely (though not impossible) that you won't wear similar at your nuptials. Similarly, there are some jobs where it is expected and enjoyable to wear your work clothes to your wedding - like, say, if you are in the military or a pimp.
But what if you are an office cubicle-dweller as I am? We wear suits to work, purely for the purposes of looking identical to all the other office cubicle-dwellers, and we wear suits to our weddings. Now, obviously, there are some differences - you can leave your security pass at home, for instance - but what of the rest? I really don't want to look like every other guy there and, far more important, I don't want to feel as though I'm about to head off for seven-and-a-half hours of looking forward to coming home. This will not be the best start to married life; hence my dalliance with the intertubes and menswear bloggery.
Once I started, I became this wee bit obsessive. Some of my research has confirmed what I already knew, like pinstripes for business only, and leaving the label on the sleevecuff of your suit makes you look like a massive tit, so I also had to make sure that there were not other conventions that, if I were ignorant of them when dressing, would see me inspire similar underhanded sniggery or head-slapping disbelief from those in the know.
I'll admit I've learned a lot and, as somebody who is a bit of a sentimental traditionalist, it's been quite nice and rewarding (perhaps I could go so far as to say "spiffing"?) to read about the heritage behind modern menswear: what garments were for what activities and what message can be sent, deliberately, though the choice of attire. Most of this knowledge has been lost for everyday schlubs like me, some thankfully, and some regrettably.
So, yes, my wedding duds will be carefully selected with a modicum of knowledge of tailoring tradition. Yes, I know what the various bits of shoes are and how they are made (and I promise to try to summarise some of this in a subsequent post to help out other baffled fellows in the future). I know what "shell cordovan" is. I know how to tell a canvassed suit from a fused one - and how to tell if it is full- or semi-canvassed. I know how ties are made.
This is why I now have a charcoal suit with peak lapels and black oxford shoes. I have never worn either to work before and both come with a higher prestige (because, traditionally, they are more difficult to make and thus cost more and can be considered more formal). Sure, the shoes are canvas, rather than leather, but the style honours the heritage and the materials honour my present. Besides, you have to know what the rules are in order to break them effectively.
On my wedding day, I will look freaking dapper. For those in the know, I will look elegant, hopefully. For those not in the know, I will still look freaking dapper.
Case in point: Horatio (the cat) adores the new shoes, even though he gets around naked and can't use the internet very well. If it were legal for a cat to marry two shoes, I reckon he'd be up for it.
I keep them in the box. Virginal wedding tradition and all.
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