Ask the expert: should anyone wear pointy-toe shoes?

I feel leather shoes with extremely pointed toes should figure only in mafia films and not the wardrobe of an executive. Am I right?

You couldn’t be more right! Take a moment to stand up and look at your feet. Do they appear pointed around the toe area? They don’t. Why should then your shoes be extremely pointed at the toes?

Not only will it make you uncomfortable for the most part of the day, but your feet will also feel tired once you take them off. Even if you do find a size bigger that’s slightly more comfortable, it will make your feet look exceptionally long and a bit clownish.

Having said that, you cannot wear comfortable square-toe shoes either unless you want your feet to look large and stubby. It will almost look like you have borrowed the shoes from Gulliver during his travels!

It may appear that this doesn’t leave a gentleman with much choice, but it does.

Study the shape of your feet and think of the look you want to achieve that is in proportion with your height. If you have slightly large feet but are not that tall, you should wear cap-toed shoes, which will give your large feet the appearance of being smaller.

If you want to appear slightly different while keeping the effects of the cap toe, you could try using split-toe shoes.

However, the perfect balance we feel between aesthetics and comfort while keeping sartorial tastes intact would be to wear chiselled-toe footwear, also known as the wing-tip toe.

Its natural shape, with the toe curving towards the bottom, ensures that it’s subtly unique and at the same time comfortable and respectful to the natural shape of your feet.

It’s also a shape that will slowly grow on you over the years and will eventually become more like a part of your feet, rather than something you wear whether you like it or not.