Today I got the cutest black and white houndstooth shoes (I couldn't resist them) even though....

Houndstooth is a duotone textile pattern, characterized by broken checks or abstract four-pointed shapes.

Black and white checks originated in woven wool cloth of the Scottish Lowlands, but are now used in many other materials. The traditional black and white checks is made with alternating bands of four dark and four light threads in both warp and weft woven in a simple 2:2 twill, two over - two under the warp, advancing one thread each pass.

Variants of the houndstooth check include the Glen Plaid (short for Glenurquhart Plaid), a variant with alternating blocks of 2-on-2 and 4-on-4 colouring, and the Prince of Wales check, with an over-check in a bright or contrasting color, popularized by Edward VIII when Prince of Wales.

The pattern made a frequent appearance on fabrics designed in the 1930s through to the 1970s.

Legendary former University of Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant made this pattern popular by wearing his trademark

Houndstooth hat on the sidelines of every game he coached. Pee-Wee Herman is famous for his light grey Glen Plaid suit. Ian Fleming's novels also describe James Bond as wearing a black and white checkered suit with dark blue shirt and black silk knit tie.

Checkered materials is commonly used for suiting, especially jackets/blazers. It is also referred to as "guncheck" or "dog-tooth".

It is also the famous motif for the luxury Australian department store chain David Jones Limited.

Bold shoes like houndstooth are meant to be an accent to an outfit. These are meant to be signature shoes, ones that say look at me, ones that add punch to almost everything in your closet making the old look fresh and new. You don't want to wear too much black and white checkered pieced at once because that can make the look cluttered and noisy. Use the shoes as an accent, rather than matching them.

Use the bold shoe to add pop to a simple shirt and skirt or shirt and pants combo. Don't worry about colour, black and white will go with almost every colour, and black, white and grey. Wear these shoes on days when you feel a little blah, they are meant to be blah-beaters.

Don't mix with a different bold patterns or again you might end up with clutter. With your top, try to wear a solid colour bottom and then the shoes. That should give you a bold and fashionable yet balanced look. Have fun with the shoe