Evening shoes simply define footwear choices that are meant to be worn in the evening rather than during the daytime. The term “evening sandals” has often become associated with metallic heels (such as silver or gold) but other shades also qualify.
For example, the Drop’s double-strap gold “bare sandals” (affiliate link) are a classical evening heel or evening sandal, perhaps for wearing to the theatre or to an awards night.
Yet if you think that the idea of special “evening heels” is an odd one, you’re not alone.
In truth, no shoes are specially created just to be worn in the evening. It’s just that fashion folks and marketers like to use the term “evening heels” to define shoes that are more likely to be paired with a dress for dinner or cocktails than perhaps worn as a 9 to 5 corporate shoe however “designer label“ that might be.
For instance, evening heels would likely refer to shoes that have a bit more bling than your average budget-priced black pump.
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But the term “evening sandals” is a more useful one than simply “evening heels”.
Let me explain.
Sandals can often be very casual shoes, perhaps the most informal footwear of all. And yet heeled sandals can be most delicate and formal, such as are almost compulsory wearing on the red carpet.
So when we preface the word “sandals” with “evening” to create “evening sandals” what we’re really talking about is a more formal or elaborate shoe than a flip flop or rubber slide.
Once upon a time the term “evening sandals” would inevitably mean high heeled sandals, usually of the strappy variety, and often gold or silver.
Even now that’s what most people would understand by the term, yet of course there are many flat sandals that are perfect for wearing in the evening with cocktail dresses and the like.
In the end, we think the idea of evening shoes has perhaps outlived its usefulness.
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Leading online shoe retailer Zappos seems to be leaning that way too. Zappos does have a “special occasion” category for “evening and cocktail” shoes (affiliate link). It contains only 76 pairs of heels though out of 5,563 in total (affiliate link).
That’s only 1.3% of the Zappos heel range. Yet a huge number of those heels which are not included would also be appropriate for evenings.
From this we can perhaps conclude that the heels you wear by day are just as appropriate at night.