Here in the UK, we wear trousers, not pants. They’re cuffed to show off our trainers, not our sneakers. And when those shoes are no longer clean, we toss them in the bin, rather than the trash. But we’ll gladly welcome one US import, even though it refers to an item so British you could serve it with bacon and beans.
Across the Atlantic, our ‘full brogue’ becomes the ‘wingtip’. Both denote a shoe that, as our prosaic term doesn’t suggest, features a leather ‘W’ at the toe that echoes a bird seen mid-beat. A pair of wings, at the tips of your shoes. Wingtips. Thank you, land of Hemingway.
We prefer ‘wingtip’ not just for its poetry. The term also offers some much-needed specificity. Men’s footwear styles are awash in interlocking and often contradictory definitions. Broguing, for example, properly refers only to the holes punched in the toes, though it is often used to mean any shoe with detailing. Equally, it’s possible to find wingtips without broguing – a smooth toe cap, but still with that swoop of leather toward the heel. They are known, confusingly, as austerity brogues.
Actually wearing them is, thankfully, rather simpler. “Although they are a traditional style, wingtips must be the most versatile shoe ever,” says Andrew Loake, head of the eponymous Northampton shoemaker.
The devil is in the detailing. Their extra texture makes wingtips a mite more casual than plain lace-ups, so they’re happy sat beneath your dark denim as well as your suit. “We don’t find there’s a specific man that wears wingtips,” adds Loake. “In decades gone by they looked good with Oxford bags and now they’re equally good with skinny jeans.”
The History Of Wingtip Shoes
The wingtip was born from the brogue, which wasn’t always a shoe that one could wear to nice restaurants. “They were originally made from plaited hair and perforated, to allow water to pass in and out,” says Neil Kirkby, from Joseph Cheaney. That feature made life more pleasant for Irish farmers, who spent much of their day tramping through bogs and didn’t fancy taking the water with them. The name comes from the Gaelic word bróg, which means ‘shoe’, although ‘brogue’ didn’t enter the lexicon until the 1900s, to denote footwear you’d wear for a muddy ramble.
At first, no decent sort would attempt brogues anywhere else. But, just as brown crept into town and hats slipped off heads, society gradually accepted that having some holes in your shoes wasn’t such a crime, so long as they were deliberate. The Duke of Windsor, who in the 1920s did more than anyone else to drag men into soft tailoring and clothes with personality, even wore his on the golf course, which helped speed up their acceptance.
As they became more fashionable, shoemakers started to experiment. “The wingtip is just a toe cap in a curvy shape,” says Tim Little, owner of Grenson. “The origins of the toecap aren’t certain but the assumption is that it was originally reinforcement for the toe, to protect it from excessive wear and tear. At some point, someone made the straight toe cap into a more elegant shape, and it stuck.”
That movement from function to form, coupled with menswear’s general shift more casual, moved the wingtips from weekend to weekday too. “These days they’re obviously quite formal, although they were regarded as more casual than a straight toe cap,” says Little. “A bank manager, for example, wouldn’t wear them before the 1950s.” Nowadays, your bank manager’s probably swapped the suit for selvedge jeans and an unstructured blazer. But he’ll still be wearing wingtips.
The Different Types Of Wingtip Shoe
Modern wingtips are a world removed from bog waders. They’re now a wardrobe essential and, as befits any menswear staple, have been twisted into new and occasionally unrecognizable shapes.
Classic Wingtips
As with any leather shoes, black is smartest, then browns from light to dark, with colors the most casual. The same goes for detailing; less is more versatile whereas intricate broguing, or novel leathers, tend not to work for smart get-ups.
Longwings
The wingtip has a cousin, whose uniqueness is only noticeable from behind. “On a classic wingtip, the wing comes along the side of the shoe and dips down into the sole about half way along the shoes,” says Little. “On a longwing, the wing comes along the side of the shoe, all the way to the back.”
Austerity Brogues
As mentioned, these are wingtips with no broguing. Since they’re plain, they dress up a touch further, although they’ll still look just as good with jeans.
Wingtip Boots
Exactly the same as normal wingtips, but they continue above the ankle. As with any brogue boots, they’re more casual so work best with casual trousers or split suits.
Spectator Shoes
These are wingtips in contrasting colors – one shade of leather for the toe cap, another for the rest of the brogue. “Two-tone versions are taken from colonial references,” says Kirkby. They were big in the 1920s, although even then they were considered flamboyant. These days they tend to drag the eye from everything else you’re wearing, so should be worn with care.
Wingtips With A Twist
The last couple of seasons have seen a resurgence in classic styles, as brands from
