It’s safe to say we’re all big fans of Colin Farrell around here. A top-notch actor with prestige and blockbuster chops. A decades-strong one-man charm offensive. The spiritual godfather of Hollywood’s all-too-belated Irish prestige heartthrob boom. And, on the whole, a trendsetting style-and-hair maverick.
This week, the actor has been in New York City—the prototypical Gotham—promoting HBO’s new Batman spinoff miniseries The Penguin. He’s been doing so while wearing well-tailored, dark-toned separates: a charcoal blazer, black tee, and skinny-ish black trousers on The Tonight Show; a smoke-hued cashmere turtleneck with slate-gray pleated slacks on Good Morning America. Alluringly, both times he wore his hair slicked back—a figurative suggestion, perhaps, of the presence of a phantom headband. Woefully, both times he cramped the vibe of his monochromatic looks with a pair of burnished caramel-brown wingtip boots—a suitable shoe, maybe, for a different context, but entirely the wrong choice for these otherwise cohesive ensembles.
To be fair, I have gone on the record now, not once but twice, as a certified Caramel Dress Shoe Dissenter. Generally speaking, if your leather shoes have a gourmand hue that resembles a delicious food such as pecans, walnuts, toffee, or butterscotch, I would rather you not wear them. Especially if your outfit is otherwise blue, black, or gray. Whether or not you’re a wedding attendee, a Financial District employee, or Colin Farrell. On the one hand, it’s a personal pet peeve; on the other, I’d argue: How quickly something as scrumptious as glossy burnt sugar can instead invoke the shiny exoskeleton of a cockroach when granted proximity to the ground!
If anyone has the charisma to pull it off, it’s Farrell, but even he can’t square these circles. Thankfully, he made good at The Penguin premiere at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, where he and his teenage son Henry wore sharp, black Dolce & Gabbana suits (the elder’s was double-breasted pinstripe; the younger’s a satin-lapel tux) with appropriately dark shoes to match. Their ensembles even managed to compliment the step-and-repeat’s ink-black carpet. Isn’t it nice when it all flows together?
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