Black shoes have gotten a bum rap over the years. As Pete once noted, switching to brown footwear has become something of a rite of passage for men who care about how they dress. Most guys start improving their wardrobes by throwing out the duck billed, black dress shoes they bought in the ‘90s – but in switching to brown footwear, they also give up on black entirely. And maybe for good reason. Brown patinates better and is easier to wear in casual settings. Plus, it’s said that southern Italian men favor brown footwear – and who doesn’t want to dress like a southern Italian man?

Lately, however, I’ve been finding that I reach for black shoes almost half the week. And not just the dressed-up, oxford kind that you might wear with navy or grey suits (although, black is a wonderful color for those more formal occasions). Instead, I like black for casual shoes.

The thing to remember about color is that it’s not just about formality or setting (e.g. navy suits in the city; brown footwear in the country). It can be about emotional and social language. Black nicely complements colors such as navy and green, largely because of how those combos are associated with the military. With other black pieces, black can also look austere and chic. And in certain styles, such as Gucci’s bit loafer, black is simply iconic.

The key to wearing black shoes is to avoid anything that could be mistaken for business dress (unless you are, in fact, wearing a suit). Some styles that I think are particularly useful: