My Shoes #22 - Bobbies Loafers

When I saw these for the first time, I just knew that I was going to have to own them. I mean, they are completely ostentatious, but that's what makes them great!! Where else are you going to see a pair of bow ties affixed to a pair of shoes? You have to love French shoe brands, such as Bobbies, because they sure know how to make things stand out, but in a good way, at least in my mind.

So as I work on a daily basis on Savile Row, home of the conservative British gentleman, you can imagine the kind of stares and thoughts that were going through many people's head the first time that I wore them. It's great too, because many of them think that I am just some crazy American youngster, but that's alright because I am confident of my own personal style. I know that many of these men wished they had the balls (excuse my French) to pull these off and instead of saying so, they judge me to fit in. And I know that many men feel this way for fear of what other people think about them, especially other men, which boggles me as to why they would even care in the first place. Not that it ever bothered me either way, but I would rather be worried about what the ladies thought, rather than the men, and let me tell you that all of the women that I work with complimented me on the shoes!!

Driving Loafers - Europe's Summer Shoe

Depending on where you live in this world, there is always a shoe that acts as one's 'go-to' model once the hot days of spring and summer start to show their face. In tropical places you have the flip-flop, in the States you have the boat shoe, and in Europe you have espadrilles and even better yet, the driving loafer. But the greatest thing about driving loafers, is that if you have the right model and you wear it properly, it can go a long way in the wardrobe and be worn with more outfits (from casual to dress) than any other summer shoe out there. The question is: why is it so popular in Europe, particularly Italy and France, yet so uncommon in the rest of the world?

The evolution of the driving loafer is quite interesting, depending on how you look at it. I may be wrong here, so feel free to let me know, but common sense would say that the driving loafer was originally created so that rich people could have a nice shoe that they could use while driving their car in order to prevent two things: dirtying the floor (from dirt, mud, wetness etc.) and wearing out the back's of their shoes. With that in mind, it would have appeared to be a luxury that only few could afford, because how many people could actually justify owning a pair of leather shoes, just to use while driving? Not me (unless it's a pair of cheap slippers). But then someone intelligent (perhaps Diego Della Valle, owner of Tod's) saw a niche in the market -- the idea of a soft, flexible and comfortable casual shoe -- with these 'driving loafers' and introduced them into the public where they have been a huge success ever since!

So you might be wondering by now, 'what frickin' brand is it that makes these loafers?' Well, let me tell you. You see, the beauty of writing a blog is that you have small, up-and-coming brands that write to you that want to get their name out, and it's great because many of them actually make a cool product that deserves to be shown to the world, and the problem with other fashion publications these days is that if you don't pay them, you are not getting any space on the pages. But as a humble blogger who loves shoes and spreading the knowledge of them, I get to enjoy being introduced to brands, like Bobbies (who makes these loafers), and then being able to share them all with you! And to give you a little bit of background info, Bobbies is a Parisian company (France) who -- as you can see -- makes unique and colorful loafers. So when they sent me their website to check out and I saw those bow-tie loafers, I immediately fell in love with them, because I just thought that it was the most clever and unique idea, and it looks cool too! So if you are dying for a pair, then look no further, because here you have a brand that makes every single color that you can think of and pretty much sells them all for under 100 Euros!! Happy shopping!

 

Picture Above Courtesy Of: The Sartorialist 

Today's Favorites - Scarpe Di Bianco Loafers

While I own a bunch of loafers already, I recently am quite obsessed with the idea of more traditional looking loafers, and owning them. Not that these models are necessarily traditional, but they offer that 'classic with a modern look' feel, as well as offering nice shapes, colors and designs. Having never seen Scarpe Di Bianco in person, due to their newness in the industry, I am quite curious of them. From looking at them, they seem to be your run-of-the-mill high-end Italian makers, offering a black-stitched or goodyear welted sole, with some good quality upper leather. This makes me quite curious of the price though, which I assume will probably be in the $600-$800's. Don't quote me on that, but hearing that they are ex-Sutor Mantellassi gents who started it, I would imagine that they came into the industry at a lower price (to maybe low-ball Sutor which will set you back $900+). Regardless, their look is very Italian, which on some shoes is great, but others is not. For these loafers, I quite like the 'Italianess' of them though, as I believe that Italian gentleman have mastered the art of the loafer.

The Whole-Cut Loafer

When you think about traditional English shoes styles, what usually comes to mind are brogues. But what I just noticed not too long ago is that the majority of British shoe companies almost always offer a 'whole-cut' loafer. And when I say 'the majority,' I mean it in the sense of the classic companies who hold traditional shoemaking standards to a high level and maintain (to a degree) the quintessentially British appeal when creating their shoe styles. While I never noticed this before, it makes perfect sense in my mind when I think about who wears this type of shoe: British dandies and the Aristocracy, the gentleman who love to dress up and wear fancy attire and bright colored-socks that are easily displayed in this type of loafer. And while that is a generalization, it holds relatively true, because really, outside of shoe freaks like me, who else wears this type of shoe?? Certainly not your regular 9-5'er.

Shoes Above & Shoes At Top: Gaziano & Girling 

 






Shoes Above: Edward Green, Picture Courtesy Of: Leffot

Although it is a commonly offered style of shoe in classic British footwear companies, it is not a style commonly worn, when it comes to the masses. It usually takes a person with a little more pizazz and guts to pull off this type of shoe. I feel like they are usually regarded as being a bit on the bold side, when compared to a more casual loafer that has stitching. It's a shame too that they have not become more popular in America. With the amount of lazy people who can't be bothered to lace their shoes -- so they buy loafers instead -- you would think that a shoe like this would be a great offer. You would also think that this model would have caught-on with the crowd of men (in the States) who make up a majority of 'business professionals,' in their 40-60's, who travel a lot and therefore wish to only buy slip-on models. But as contradicting as it is, the idea of not having any stitching, makes for a less business-professional type of shoe (due to it's boldness) and when needing to make a 20 million dollar deal, you apparently don't want to offend anyone by being too stylish!! How crazy is that??

Shoes Above: Alfred Sargent

Owning a pair myself, I quite enjoy them. Honestly, I never would have chose to make that model for myself but when I made it I had no other option. When you are apprenticing for a shoemaker, they will usually give you uppers that are considered scraps, uppers that have a defects on them or were no longer wanted by the customer etc. So for my first pair, this whole-cut loafer upper was what I had to work with. But now that I look back at it, I am glad that I was given that or I may have never owned a pair and after wearing them several times now, I am quite fond of them. I have paired them with my suits but generally like to wear them with my jeans and if you are a person who likes to show off the socks, then they are the best model for that. I wish that they would become more readily available but much like the whole-cut oxford, this model of loafer is generally limited to only being offered by high-end shoe companies, particularly the British ones!

Shoes Above: John Lobb

Shoe Of The Day

I am a sucker for Ferragamo and it's because of great shoes like these that they seem to always keep my interest. The uniqueness of velour always adds a touch of brilliance to that which seems to lack in being just a plain calfskin. The shoe above would be just another black driving loafer had it not been made with velour. But with the velour it is something completely different. There is a different feel to it, different things that it can be used for such as more elegant occasions, fancier outfits but at the same time would look great with the right pair of jeans. It is a great material that should be used more in the shoe industry. A velour post will be coming soon so be on the look out! Wait until you see my pair of Ferragamo velour shoes, they are wild!

Flip Flops With Jeans - No Dice!!!

Seriously, men wearing flip flops with jeans has to be in the top 3 of sartorial blunders in existence!!! And even worse, it is the #1 reason why every other country (except England, who has the same problem) makes fun of the way we dress and to be honest, as proud as I am to be American, I agree with them! This look just makes no sense!! I know your argument would be that you want to be comfortable and expose air to your feet but please, who the hell cares!!! Nobody wants to constantly see your feet. If you wear shorts it is more understandable to wear flip flops but going around in your jeans, when it's not even hot, wearing your flip flops is just UGLY!!!!! Whats even worse is the people that do this wear these baggy ass jeans that almost eat their flip flops while at the same time creating all this excess jean hanging out everywhere, getting all tore up at the bottom. Even with slim jeans they look ridiculous! Examples below:













There are SOOOO many other options that you could try to keep your feet cool. For example, you could wear espadrilles, driving mocs or shit, even sneakers without socks, just leave the flip flops for the beach or at least for when you are wearing shorts. There is nothing flattering about wearing them around town with your jeans, like I said before nobody wants to see or smell those barking dogs!! Pictures like this one below are precisely why their should be a rule against this because it's always the people with the ugliest, dirtiest, and stinkiest feet who want to go around displaying them, where is the courtesy!!!!

Why, why, why?? I just don't get it, it's not fashionable, it's not elegant, it's not even fucking hygienic so why do so many people do it. It can't be because it's comfortable, flip flops have no support what-so-ever! They are like walking on a flat piece of rubber or leather, that's not comfortable. I think I need to set some guidelines for when it is acceptable to wear flip flops with jeans.

The Only Exceptions:

1. If you live somewhere like the Dominican Republic where it is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) every single day.
2. You are at the beach with your pants rolled up because you don't have or want to wear shorts.
3. You are a woman with nice feet
4. You have some sort of burn or pain or problem (like diabetes) on your feet that is enhanced 100 times when wearing shoes
5. Or because you are some sort of walking Abercrombie & Fitch advertisement/model that gets fucking paid to dress like a douche.


So if you do not fit these criteria, you should not be wearing jeans with flip flops and instead should try these other looks:












Two Above: Courtesy of The Sartorialist













Left Shoe: Rachel Comey Espadrilles
Right Shoe: Bally Espadrilles



Shoes By Bally