How To Lace Oxfords & Tie Men’s Dress Shoes

Shoes with shoelaces ensure the tightness and comfort of the wearer. Since most of the dress shoes come with lace, you must have the right shoelace to ensure the shoe’s durability.

However, the shoes and the standard lacing styles are not one-fits-all. For instance, Oxfords have a closed lacing style, which makes them different from the rest. Like how you lace oxford, derby, and even boots, they have elaborate ways that come of stylish if they were executed right.

Why does shoe lacing matter? Are you curious to find out the different shoe lacing styles that are appropriate for your dress shoes?

Shoelaces for Dress Shoes

Like knowing how to wear a hat appropriately, you need to know how to execute the proper lacing for your shoes. Not only because it is stylish, but it can also save you time from tying your shoes over and over again.

Dress shoes are anything but sneakers. While sneakers are suitable for casual clothing, some men use dress shoes as an alternative to sneakers. Shoes like derby shoes, oxford, and some dress boots are great with jeans, like how they fit sneakers in the first place.

But the only thing that remains from comparing sneakers and the shoes mentioned above is that you still have to lace them.

But first, let’s have a little more knowledge about shoelaces and how they come into the function that we know now.

A Brief History of Shoelaces

Since technology back then wasn’t as elaborate as what we have now, you can expect the people from the past to be a little more into the improvisation of what they have in their surroundings.

There is no definitive date for when historians first found the use of shoelaces. Although, they link back to the invention of makeshift shoelaces in the year 3000 BC.

Consider the possibility that people back then walked around in giant leaves as their shoes. They are sufficient to protect their feet from the ground and provide some protection from the elements.

They tie everything together with grass or any other string they can get their hands on. The people are using shoelaces as a support for their improvised shoes.

One of the fascinating facts is that they even invented one shoe that uses a leather shoelace. Areni-1 is a shoe that uses animal skin as its cover.

Materials Used in Making Shoelaces

And as time progresses, these shoelaces are made to be one of the necessities of shoe anatomy with various materials like hemp, cotton, and leather. But because the population is booming every year, many manufacturers are using synthetic materials now rather than natural fibers.

Synthetic materials last longer than natural fibers. With its material, the shoelaces do not rot quickly. However, these shoelaces are less to create friction. However, synthetic material seems ideal for dress shoes, but natural fibers are still extraordinary because they are not slippery and hold longer than the former.

Types of Shoelaces

There are several types of shoelaces to equip your dress shoes. You must lace oxford shoes with the best kind of shoelaces. For your other dress shoes, you can use round shoelaces, flat shoelaces, and even dress boot shoelaces.

Round Shoelaces

It would be best if you laced oxford shoes with a round shoelace. Round shoelace is the standard shoelace that is appropriate for your oxford shoes since they use waxed cotton and is thin enough to pass through the eyelets.

If you chose a round shoelace for your oxford, it should be made of excellent quality since it won’t rip easily.

Flat Shoelaces

On the other hand, flat shoelaces give you the best choice for your other dress shoes. While round ones are thin, these flat shoelaces have a wider body, and they give bolder appeal to your shoes.

Dress Boot Laces

Dress boot laces are the thickest of them all. These laces are only for workboots and dress boots.

Unlike the prior two, you can’t use this to lace oxford shoes, as this is only good for dress boots. Dress boots like chukka boots have 2 to 5 eyelets that require 120cm to 47.25 inches long laces.

The Right Color To Show the Quality of Shoelaces

Like your shoes, you also have to pair the shoelaces to match the style you’re aiming to achieve. It mostly depends on your taste and confidence, whether you are looking to venture into new colors like matching a yellow lace to your shoes or still considering the classic shoelace styling.

It is now the time to dive into the fun yet complicated part of shoe lacing. If you have been annoyed, the following section is critical if you want to know how to lace oxford shoes.

How to Lace Oxford Shoes

There are many creative ways to lace different kinds of shoes. However, if you have an oxford shoe, you should go for straight lace or bar laced shoes.

Straight Lacing

The easiest way to lace oxford shoes is straight lacing. Straight lacing works for all oxford shoes, even if they have five or more eyelets. This method could help you hide the lace inside the shoes, but it would help if you kept in mind that there would be some difficulties tightening straight lacing. Here are the basic steps to lace oxford shoes.

1. To achieve a horizontal line above the leather, you must insert both lace ends inside the eyelets.

2. Next, you have to pull both ends to get the exact length of the lace, depending on how many eyelets your oxford shoe has.

3. Now that you have finished that, you need to take the lace outside the shoe. Secure both ends and push one side through the bottom of the second hole on the same side, then go back into the second hole on the opposite side from the top.

4. This pattern would go on until you finish all the eyelets and tie them in the manner you want.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

Are there any other ways to tie my shoelaces?

Yes, if you want, you can also try to do the criss-cross method as well. The criss-cross approach is slightly unconventional when lacing your oxford shoes, but it goes well with derby shoes.

Why do I need to tie my shoelaces?

There are some shoes like exotic skin shoes that don’t have to lace your shoes. However, if you purchase a shoe with laces, it is necessary to meet your comfort in wearing a shoe. Moreover, you will not have to worry about stepping on your lace if you did it right.

Does color matter in choosing my shoelaces?

While you do have the flexibility to choose a lace color of your choice, as previously said, that choice is somewhat limited. You will want to prevent a nasty effect with your shoelaces, which you can do by ensuring your shoe color is on point with your overall attire.