Shoes Of The Week - Mark Guyot

I must admit, before coming to England, I had never even heard of the butterfly loafer. I am not familiar with any American makers that produce one (unless Allen Edmonds has recently caught on) nor did I have a run-in during my short but sweet time in Italy. But now that I am here, in the heart of Mayfair, where there are all of the arcade's that host space to the likes of New & Lingwood and George Cleverley, I cannot seem to get away from the butterfly loafer. But I like it, it's unique, it's produces a nice medium between plain, boring loafer and over the top. Said to be originally designed by the likes of Mr. George Cleverley himself, it has since evolved as seen here, by French maker Marc Guyot.

One thing that I particularly like about this version of the butterfly loafer, is the fact that French makers tend to design the vamp so that it extends much higher up the foot, towards the ankle. For me, it is much more elegant looking although it does have the downfall of not showing as much sock, which can be a shame when you are trying to pull of out fancy, dandy outfit! We are rumored to be getting a burgundy pair of the classic, George Cleverley designed butterfly loafer sometime in May, here at Gieves & Hawkes. So, since I do not have one nor a burgundy loafer (something that I have been longing for) I am holding out for those! If only the French makers were more readily available here in England, things would be different. But I cannot afford to fly to Paris just to get a pair of shoes, not yet at least!

Today's Favorites - Marc Guyot's Unique Derby

The French never cease to amaze me when it comes to being stylistically and colorfully creative in the world of shoes. Here you can see that shoe designer Marc Guyot achieved just that by slightly modifying the design of the common derby model. What I like most about it, is that the extra piece of leather gives you the chance to add another color into the mix, as Mr. Guyot did as well. While I have always been more the fan of an oxford, what I like about a derby such as this, is the fact that vamp extends so high up, giving the shoe a very clean and elegant look. Only in these instances could a derby sway my interests in the oxford!

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!!!