An outfit includes your shoes

If a detail is necessary, don't treat it as an afterthought

When the weather turned warmer this past spring, I discovered a problem. I was looking to wear my summer flats — basically, shoes without warm wool socks. But most of my jeans were the length for wearing with heeled boots. As a not-terribly fashionable person, I kept wearing these longer jeans with my flats and just kind of stomping on my hems. This did not make me feel put together.

Fortunately, I went shopping with a professional stylist and she picked out a number of cropped jeans that were the right length for wearing with the shoes I had. Everything felt much more stylish (well, considering the material we were working with).

The whole experience was a reminder to me that shoes are part of an outfit. We often buy pants and shirts and shoes in separate stores, but we wear all of those at the same time. If we’re out and about in the world, people are seeing our shoes just as they’re seeing everything else. So, best to think about shoes from the get-go. If you live in a cold weather climate, this is true for your coat too. You are usually going to be seen with your coat — so best to include it in your wardrobe decisions as well.

Necessary details

Now, I imagine my more stylish readers are wondering why on earth I’m bringing this up — doesn’t everyone choose their shoes and/or jackets with their outfits? The answer is no, but also, even fashionable folks might have blindspots to this insight in other realms of life. The fact that “an outfit includes your shoes” is true in metaphorical ways as well. If a detail is going to be necessary, best to plan for it from the get-go. Don’t treat it as an after thought.

I know I’ve been guilty of this with book covers. When I write a book, I’m generally not thinking of what the cover is going to look like. What can I say, I’m not a very visual person (see: shoes that don’t match the outfit). But no one’s reading my book without a cover. Even people who are downloading the ebook will see the cover on their book app, and in their reading app. So I should be thinking of concepts as soon as I come up with a book idea. This isn’t a last minute detail. It’s how many people will think of the book!

Likewise, I’ve always thought it was a little unfair that writers tend not to get to choose their headlines in magazines and newspapers, as the headline becomes what everyone uses to reference the story. It would be best to know it from the beginning.

I’ve seen consultant teams work all night to prepare a 100-page deck, and then not work much on the summary page. Which is, of course, the only thing the client is actually going to look at before the meeting.

It’s taken me a long time to make sure I have enough nice wrapping paper and cards and ribbon in the house to make presents look appropriately festive. Yes, it’s the thought that counts, but handing someone a haphazardly wrapped gift is kind of like stepping on your pant hems. Most presents are wrapped so…why not think of this detail from the beginning?

Time is a detail

This insight — that an outfit includes your shoes — even pertains to time. Often, we don’t build all the constituent parts of an activity into our time estimates, even though all those parts are necessary. Getting groceries involves the time it takes to put them away at home. You are not going to leave your ice cream on the counter (I hope). This is not some surprise element of the grocery shopping process that no one could have anticipated. So, best to build it in.

And, likewise, you won’t be barefoot unless you’re on the beach. Shoes are part of an outfit. We need to consider all the details, from the beginning (or we wind up with some badly frayed hems).