Today's Favorites - Black Shoes

Two Above: Gaziano & Girling

Two Above: Corthay (Pictures Courtesy Of: Leffot)

Boot Above: Carreducker

Shoe Above: Dimitri Bottier

Today, one of my readers told me that he was under the impression that I was anti black shoes and disagreed with me on that regard. While I assured him that it was not the case, I understood why he may have been under that impression due to my recent writing as well as some in the past. So for the rest of you who may have believed the same, let me set the record straight.

I believe that a black dress shoe in an essential piece in every man's wardrobe. What I do not agree with is the heavy emphasis that many people (and societal thought) put on owning black shoes and their necessity for business attire. A black shoe is not the end-all-be-all shoe. It's not the most versatile shoe and it's not the most important in a man's wardrobe. These opinions (which some people claim as fact) are what I have trouble with. I love a black shoe, if it can set itself apart from the rest. But your average black cap or apron toe that every business man in the States, England and quite possibly any other metropolitan area in the world, is just plain boring and inconsequential.

So to back up my point of liking black shoes, I have displayed some here that I find quite appealing. I hope this helps clear up any confusion.

Monk Straps

Why don't you ever see anyone wear monk strap shoes? I really can't figure it out. You hardly ever see them for sale at stores and even more rarely see them being worn. I feel like they are going into extinction. But why?? Are you afraid to wear them? Do you like them? In my encounters with them and bringing them out to customers on the sales floor I feel like they are the leper of shoes, the thing that everyone wants to stay away from! It makes no sense to me, because in my mind they are such a bad-ass shoe!






















Shoes At Very Top (Orange): Sutor Mantellassi
Clockwise From Top Left: Anthony Delos; Dimitri Bottier: Edward Green; Bontoni

What kills me about me writing this though is that I currently don't own one and I am feeling like such a big hypocrite writing these things. I used to own one but during my last two years of hiatus, I had to get rid of many things that weren't absolutely necessary. I recycled them, however, to my friend to keep the style living and set out on a quest to get one as soon as possible. What was great though, was that the same friend whom I gave them to also gave me something: a monk strap upper just waiting for me to turn it into a shoe. That being, the next pair of shoes that I make for myself will be a beige suede monk strap (only a tad darker than the one above by Dimitri) with a button and necessary hole as the fastener. Might be hard to imagine but you can bet that as soon as I go back to Europe (ETA Sept.) and make that shoe, I will post pictures immediately!!!




















All Shoes Above By: John Lobb

Two companies seem to be keeping them alive though: John Lobb and Stefano Bemer. As you can tell by the pictures above and below, both companies have very unique and different styles yet it is clearly obvious that John Lobb's specialty is the double monk strap while Stefano Bemer's is the single monk strap. Not to say that both companies don't make beautiful shoes in the contrary design but it seems as their preferences lie clearly in the photos as well as in their websites. It's good to see that shoemakers are still making them even when it doesn't seem that many people are wearing them. Yet, while I think about it, maybe it is just boring-ass Americans who don't wear them because I now remember seeing them relatively often on the feet of men in Italy. Can't say that I see too many of them in England but I would not be surprised if they were more prevalent in France. Nevertheless they are still dwindling in sitings and it needs to turn around.


























All Shoes Above By: Stefano Bemer

I hear so many men talk about how monk straps aren't dressy enough for work and this and that, but I think that it is all a load of bullshit and they either really don't like them, don't know how to wear them or are just plain pansies who are afraid to change from their norm! Whatever the case, its crap!! Monk straps are dressy enough to wear with the finest of suits and look great in work attire. In my opinion, a very nice monk strap is one of the most elegant shoes available second only to a beautiful wholecut oxford. People, get your shit together, as I will when I make my pair, and get yourself a nice beautiful monk strap shoe!!!!












Left Shoe: Koji Suzuki
Right Shoe: Santoni

Shoe Of The Day

First off, I just want to apologize for the long absence without a proper article but planning a wedding, getting married and taking a short honeymoon takes up much of your free time. I promise that I will post one of Tuesday! To kind of drag on this wedding shoe stuff I thought that I would post something that satisfies both the classic man who wants to wear black, shiny shoes as well as the modern man who wants to try something different. These shoes by Dimitri Bottier have the feel of what French royalty used to wear back in the 1700 or 1800's. I love the added touch of the fabric across the vamp as well as along the edge of the mouth of the shoe. Details like this always set a shoe apart for me, taking it from average to amazing! This pair, I would have worn for my wedding!

Burgundy Shoes - Where The Hell Are They??

Why is it so hard to find nice burgundy colored shoes? They used be everywhere. Now you have to scrounge to find them and 80% of the ones you find are some ugly-ass Bass Wejun styled loafer that your grandfather would have worn. For such an elegant color that is extremely versatile, you would think that it would be more readily available by many shoe brands. I guess with this new 'brown being the new black' surge, there hasn't been much thought put into burgundy. Most shoe companies must be worrying about the 97 different colored browns that they are making their shoes in. Not to say that this brown emergence is not good, but I feel like it is now becoming a little bit redundant and the shift needs to take a change towards other colors.
























Shoes (Top of page): Gaziano & Girling
Shoes Above (From top left, clockwise): Dimitri Bottier; Marc Guyot; Saion; Santoni

Out of all of the colors that suits come in (black, navy, gray, khaki & olive) the only suit color that I would hesitate to pair with burgundy would be black. Not saying that I would not ever put a burgundy colored shoe with a black suit (because I think that it could be nice with the right pieces) but it definitely would be my last resort considering how much more burgundy compliments a nice blue/navy or gray suit. It is not a 'racy' color or something that is unacceptable in the work place and the fact that it happens to go so well with all of these suit colors, it seems strange to me that you don't see them very often in the stores. Who fault is this? The shoe companies or the buyers? Either way someone needs to take a risk and bring these beautiful shoes back into the stores so that average Joe's like me and you, who may not be able to afford these beautiful $1000+ shoes that I always display, can actually find a nice pair!






















Shoes Above (Top Left): Gaziano & Girling
All of the Rest: Corthay, pictures provided by Leffot

Let's try to do something here!!! If you agree with me and love burgundy shoes yet have a hard time finding one's that you like then the next time that you go to the place that you shop the most, tell the salesmen to tell their buyers to BUY MORE BURGUNDY!!! If enough of us do this, things will change. Let's re-create the Hush Puppy effect!

Shoes With Mulitple Materials

In a time where almost everything has been done before, it must be challenging for a shoe designer to come up with something that is fresh and unseen. One of the ways to do this is to create shoes with multiple materials for the upper leather. This alone, brings out an infinite array of possibilities. And while this concept has been utilized by many artisans and designers over the years, it is by far still an untapped direction of design. Obviously, with the way the world is, regarding it's strict dress codes in work environments, it may be seen as impractical to make shoes that would not be regarded as acceptable professional footwear. Yet I would work toward the contrary: 'Lets make more so that we can slowly start breaking the barrier to strict dress codes!'













Shoes Above By: Dimitri Bottier
Shoes At Top By: Gaziano & Girling

Above is a beautiful example of a fairly conservative shoe that could easily be assimilated into the working society. That little touch of detail sets this shoe miles apart from the average, boring black shoe that finds itself looking like all the rest. Yet why don't we see more of this??? Because people are too afraid to step out of their comfortable, little bubble and grow a pair by doing what they want and not conforming to what is acceptable. So many times have grown men came up to me (while I was wearing my teal blue shoes) and said in a soft voice so that no one would hear, "Man, I wish that I could wear those!" Shit, why can't you? This is what I always thought. What is stopping people? Themselves mostly and secondly, society. It's a shame, people should feel more free to dress how they want and not be judged!














This pair above is a pair of Dolce & Gabbana's that I personally own. If you can't tell, they consist of gray patent and blue velour, two obviously very different materials. I remember the day I purchased these. I was working on the men's shoe floor at the Downtown Seattle Flagship Nordstrom and my coworker had called me and said, "Justin, we just received a new pair of D&G's that you are going to want, I am going to put one aside for you." So when I got to work, surely enough I bought my size and then sold one to my manager, my friend in the women's shoe department and told him to sell one to his best friend. Of the five that came in I bought, sold or referred the sale of 4 of them. What's is funny is that this always happens too. When Nordstrom bought something unique and out of the ordinary, people bought it quickly, yet we go forever without getting exciting things and constantly see the same boring stuff. I think that if more department stores took more risks with unique things, than styles would change and people would start getting more of the things that they have always wanted but never had enough guts to get. And just to point it out but not to offend anyone's sexual orientation, the 3 other men as well as myself are all straight men. This just goes to show that the belief that certain shoes should or could only be worn by certain individuals is crap!!! This is bullshit and is not only insulting to stylish straight men but also to non-straight men.











Left Shoe By: Dimitri Bottier
Right Shoe By: Marc Guyot

The two shoes above are both by French shoemakers. What I love about French shoemakers, is their fearlessness to push the envelope and come out with some of the craziest shoe styles/combinations that you can imagine. And whats great about it is that they do it well and sell these new and imaginative styles to many people yet it has just not quite caught on to the mass market here in America. I only hope that as time goes on their presence will become stronger in the American market, where more and more people will wear things that set them apart from the rest. You can help start this by getting something that no one else you know has a pair of. Guaranteed, if you do this, you will get lots of compliments and feel good about being different from everyone else! Be sure to check out the links that I add on all of my posts of the makers of the shoes in my pictures. Don't be afraid to expand your horizons!!!