Start With Your Wardrobe, Not Fashion Trends

When we buy shoes, there is a tendency to start with the same question:

What colour will go with everything?

Usually, that leads us towards black, nude or another supposedly sensible neutral. And there is nothing wrong with any of those colours, when they are the colours you genuinely want to wear.

But we think there is a better question.

What colour would work beautifully with the clothes I already love?

Because getting dressed isn't really about finding one shoe that goes with everything. It is about understanding your own wardrobe, the colours you return to, the combinations you instinctively put together and the pieces that make you feel most like yourself.

Start with what you already wear

Before looking at trends, look inside your wardrobe.

Which colours dominate? Which outfits do you wear again and again? Do you naturally combine soft, tonal shades, or do you like a point of contrast? Are you dressing mostly for work, evenings, weddings and occasions or a mixture of all three?

A wardrobe of navy, denim, grey and white might work beautifully with a soft Sage or a richer blue.

Black tailoring doesn't necessarily require another black shoe. Bordeaux, Amethyst or an unexpected flash of Ultraviolet can change the entire feeling of an outfit without changing the clothes at all.

And a wardrobe built around camel, cream, chocolate and other neutrals can often take far more colour than you might imagine.

This is where colour becomes interesting.

Not as a trend to follow, but as part of how you get dressed.

The most versatile colour might not be a neutral

We often think of versatility as invisibility: the shoe that disappears into as many outfits as possible.

But versatility can mean something else.

It can be the colour that makes five things already in your wardrobe suddenly feel more interesting. The shoe you wear with jeans one day and tailoring the next. The unexpected shade that becomes the reason an otherwise simple outfit works.

That is why there isn't one universally useful shoe colour.

There is only the colour that is useful to you.

And sometimes, the colour you initially think is the least practical becomes the one you wear most.

Why choosing colour online is difficult

Of course, there is a reason we often retreat to familiar colours when shopping online.

Colour is remarkably difficult to judge through a screen.

Screens vary. Lighting changes. Photography changes colour again. And materials have their own character: suede absorbs and reflects light differently from smooth leather, so a shade can shift considerably between bright daylight and an evening interior.

When you are investing in a beautifully made pair of shoes, that uncertainty matters.

We didn't think choosing between ten Elandetta colours should come down to looking at ten photographs and hoping for the best.

So we created another way to choose

The Elandetta Swatch Book was created so that you can see our colours as they actually are.

Real suede. Real colour. In your own light.

You can hold a swatch against the dress you're planning to wear to a wedding. Put it beside your favourite trousers. Take it shopping. Compare two colours you would never have considered together. Look at them in daylight, then again in the evening.

It is a small thing, but it changes the way you choose.

Because we think buying shoes should feel more like choosing something beautiful for your home or selecting fabric for something you intend to keep: considered, tactile and personal.

Not simply, What goes with everything?

But, What do I love with this?

Choose the colour you would actually miss

If you are still unsure, try one final test.

Imagine the shoes in front of you in several colours.

Which pair would you be disappointed to leave behind?

That answer is often more useful than asking which colour is the safest.

At Elandetta, we don't believe colour is the risk.

Choosing something you don't really love simply because it seems practical is the risk.

Start with your wardrobe. See the colours for yourself. Try the combinations you hadn't considered.

Then choose the one that feels unmistakably yours.