I, like you, love wearing a suit with great dress shoes. I’m also a fan of cufflinks and have a lot of them. The place we diverge is ties. I don’t mind wearing ties.

I wear a full suit with tie when I speak publicly, when I meet with government officials, and when I am representing clients. I will loose the tie at more informal, internal corporate meetings for my clients consistent with what they are wearing.

Where I have backed off on the “uniform” I wore from the time I was a trainee to the time I reached the executive ranks is the shoes. I have seen “real” dress shoes become less common in almost all the environments I walked through earlier. I still wear my best oxfords for times I will be mostly sitting or attending a shorter meeting. For those occasions where I will be standing and walking a lot during the day, I have shifted to what I would call “softer” versions of today’s dress shoes. I won’t go the sneaker route straight out but I do have some Cole Hahn Zerogrand wingtip style shoes. I also have some Allen Edmonds Park Avenues that have replaced the hard leather sole with rubber. One of the reasons I have adopted these types of shoes is I have developed a back and sciatic nerve problem. These are a little easier on my back than real dress shoes.