Men's Black and White Patent Wingtip Tuxedo Shoes

Two tone shoes are a statement before they are footwear. The Men's Black and White Patent Wingtip Tuxedo Shoes belong to prom, to a themed reception, to a stage or a swing floor, and buying them for a conventional black tie evening is the one real mistake available here.

Why Two Tone Reads Loud

The pattern is doing two jobs at once. A wingtip already breaks the front of a shoe into shapes, with its perforated W across the toe and its wings sweeping back along the sides, and splitting those shapes into black and white makes every one of them legible from across a room.

That is the point of the design and also its ceiling. A single color wingtip is quiet enough for an office. This one is not quiet anywhere.

Patent Under Event Lighting

Patent arrives shiny and stays that way without polishing, because the gloss is a coating rather than a finish worked into the surface. The upper is treated to resist creasing, so the flex line across the vamp stays shallower than it would on an untreated leather look shoe.

Under a photographer's flash a patent surface returns a hard highlight, and on a two tone shoe that highlight lands on the white sections and can blow them out entirely in a close frame. Worth knowing if the shoes are meant to appear in the pictures rather than simply carry you through the night. Underneath, the outsole is stitched and the heel stapled.

Prom Rather than Black Tie

A black tie dress code is asking for a plain black patent oxford, and a spectator wingtip breaks it visibly rather than subtly. Save these for an evening that has a theme, a stage, or a group who have agreed on a look together.

Prom is the natural home. So is a quinceanera court, a jazz or swing night, a costumed reception, or a wedding party that has chosen a period register on purpose. In those rooms this is the best thing in the outfit.

Fifteen Sizes Two Fittings

The run covers 6.5 through 16 in a regular D width and a wide EE, with half steps through 11.5 and whole numbers above that. The wide fitting starts higher up the ladder than the regular one, so the smallest sizes are a D proposition only.

Choose the width before the length. Patent has no give at all. It is a coating over a base material and it will not relax around a foot the way an untreated upper does, so a D that feels snug on day one feels identical in month six. A broad foot should take the EE rather than wait for a break-in that is not coming.

Marks, Storage and Socks

How do scuffs come off patent? Most marks on a patent surface are transfer from someone else's shoe rather than damage to the coating, so they lift with a damp cloth. A white panel that has picked up black rubber from a dance floor usually clears with a soft eraser worked gently, and a thin film of petroleum jelly afterward brings the gloss back level.

Do these need breaking in? No, and that cuts both ways. There is nothing to soften, so the fit out of the box is the fit you keep. Walk in them on carpet at home before the event, while a pressure point can still be answered by changing the size.

What socks go with a two tone shoe? Black, matched to the trouser rather than to the shoe. White socks pick up the white panel and drag the eye down to the ankle, which is the one part of the look that gains nothing from attention.

How should they be stored? Flat, in a bag, with nothing resting on the toe. Patent takes a permanent crease if it is folded or squashed under weight, and unlike a crease in leather it cannot be worked back out afterward.