In most poeple’s eyes, dress shoes are black, by default, as dress shoes means formal, and black is formal.
For those who traveled in this field for some time, they feel dark brown is friendlier to most outfit than black shoes.
Then comes the question, what is the third colour for dress shoes in men’s wardrobe.
I am afraid most cannot answer this question with confidence.
The answer is wine red.
Wine red is a general name, and can be divided into three red colours popular in dress shoes: burgundy, maroon and oxblood. What is the difference of these three red colours?
Burgundy comes from the area of wine producing in France, and it is the reddest among three.
Maroon is French for Chestnut, so you can find some brown shade in it.
Oxblood is the deepest one and even reflects some purple.
But you would easily tell which one is which if not put side by side.
Why is red ranked third? Several reasons.
First is pairing with suits.
How many suits does a man need is a tough question, but these five colours receive no refute.
Navy
Suitable shoe colours: black, dark brown and red.
Every colour is OK, navy is the go-to colour for a reason.
Grey
Suitable shoe colours: black, dark brown and red.
The fight never ends that which colour should be the first suit for man.
Grey has many shades, if dark, black is more suitable, if light, red wine is the best.
Charcoal
Suitable shoe colours: black, red, not suitable: dark brown.
Charcoal is a very formal colour, comparing to navy, charcoal makes the wearer more mature and powerful. So even dark brown is too casual. Formal black is the best choice.
However, the oxblood due to its saturation can match with charcoal suit.
Brown
Suitable shoe colours: dark brown, red; not suitable: black.
Earth tone clothes are more sporty and not quite formal by this outdoor nature. So the formal black is ruled out first. The serious black never goes well with relaxing brown.
Tone on tone is a high end skill and not easy to master for many, so if you insist to wear a pair of brown shoes, make sure its colour is darker than the suit, and wearing a red shoes brings not problem here.
Black
Suitable shoe colour: black; not suitable: dark brown, red.
Most of the time, shoes should be more formal than the clothes, so as the very formal suit colour, the shoes must be formal as well.
Conclusion
With the above review of shoe colours for different suits, we know that red shoes are a very good choice if you have own black and dark brown ones.