Shoe Of The Day

This is a MTO Edward Green shoe named the Falkirk which is available at Leffot in Manhattan. What I love about this shoe is the detailing in the brogueing. The little side bits that are added are just a nice touch that you don't see too often. More times than not you will find that I will have a wingtip or brogue as my shoe of the day because I am a sucker for those two styles.

Pictures provided by Leffot

Fashion World's Most Influential Person

I recently did a guest post on my friend's blog (Lady Peach) about the fashion world's most influential person and I wanted to also share it with all of you. If you are interested in photography or just discovering cool new blogs, you should definitely check out her site, it has some of the most stunning and vivid photography that I have ever seen. Enjoy!


If a women was to answer this question, 95% might say Anna Wintour, partly because she was portrayed in the movie 'The Devil Wears Prada' and partly because many women know that she is the editor-in-chief of Vogue USA, a magazine considered by many to be a style Bible for women as well as quite possibly the most influential piece of publication in the fashion world. The average stylish man might say Tom Ford or Marc Jacobs because of their increasing popularity and devoted following within the last 5 years or so. However, considering this is such a subjective question and I am usually one to adhere to a contrary belief, I say that no matter who is answering, if they just stated one person they would be wrong!!It's regular individuals (like the one's pictured) who are the fashion world's most influential. People who set themselves apart from the masses, try new things, new pieces, toy with new colors, vintage looks etc. These are the people who give inspiration to fashion designers, editors of publications, people like Scott Schuman ("The Sartorialist") and everybody else involved in the fashion world. Sure there are people like Anna Wintour and designers like Tom Ford who may set themselves apart by utilizing their vast knowledge, connections, experience and power in the fashion world but they are not the source. They are receiving their inspiration from somewhere and I would be willing to bet that a good chunk of it is from regular people. Many great individuals in their respective industry are good at what they do because they are great observers. They absorb what they see, what they hear, what they feel and use that to create something greater.
A classic example of this comes from a story about the shoe brand called Hush Puppies. Hush Puppies are an American brand that started in the late 50's and grew to huge success by the early 60's having their brand tied to many stories regarding famous people and occurrences, including saving the life of Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards. However, what relates them to this post is the fact that by the late 80's, early 90's their sales started dwindling drastically, leaving them upon the brink of extinction. But then the strangest thing occurred. A group of hipsters started wearing them (a gray suede slip-on to be exact) in and around the club scene of New York City. More and more people started to recognize these people, wondering where they could also find these gray suede shoes. It wasn't long before 3 fashion designers caught wind of this and started featuring Hush Puppies in their collections. To give you number examples, Hush Puppies in '94 were down to 30,000 pairs sold, in '95 that number grew to 430,000 pairs sold and in '96 was four times greater than '95. This just goes to show power of regular individuals and how our they can influence not only high-powered designers, but a country and even the world!

Pictures provided by The Sartorialist

Shoe Of The Day

When making a spectator using crocodile and calfskin, or another smooth leather, I really feel like it is hit or miss on how the final product comes out. They are either beautiful or butt-ugly! This one here by a.Testoni, I happen to find very well done. What is interesting about the model is how it's vamp extends all the way to the heel breaking up the quarter and completely leaving out the counter. I find it a very intriguing design. I also love the pairing of these two colors and more importantly the dark piping around the face of the shoe, the mouth and quarter. This shoe commands attention and deserves it!!

More Vs Poor: What Women Think About A Man With Style

Hey all, today I have something a little different on my blog. This is a guest post by my friend True Queen. She is going to shed some light on how women think about men and their style choices and how shoes play a big part of that. I hope that you all enjoy it!

"How a man is dressed speaks volumes to a woman long before he even gets a chance to utter his name. Women generally are extremely detail oriented and will pick apart and dissect any given object in several different ways to determine whether or not something is of value or junk. This method can be applied to just about anything including men; and when it comes to a man and his personal style, there is much to learn from a man who chooses loafers over sneakers.

Now when it comes to dress, I think I can speak for all women when I say that first impressions can be critical. I'm not one to leave judgment based on appearance alone, there are a lot of great guys out there that don't quite have fashion down; but with some time and effort a man can surely up his chances on making any sort of connection with the opposite sex with a few minor, or major changes.

Sight, Smell and Shoes; the three S's men should be aware of when dressing in a manner that will attract or merely impress women. Women generally think that a man with style will be more likely to care about the minor details in a potential relationship if he pays attention to minor details like accessories, a dapper pair of shoes and a splash of cologne on himself.

Of the 3 I think the shoes speak the loudest just because they can be noted from a distance, and bring the caliber of any outfit up just based on the shoes alone. His style doesn't have to be sleek either, some women like a man who is rugged around the edges like Johnny Depp or Lenny Kravitz. Just make sure you know how to do it without looking like a bum.

Cleanliness is first and foremost in my mind when I see a man who is well put together. I would hope that his house would look as put together as he is; It just doesn't make sense to look so put together and live in chaos.

Stability; a man who can maintain his sexy, trim his nose hairs, and keep up with the latest trends tells a woman he is financially stable, focused and ambitious.

Regular grooming tells a woman that he cares about the face he puts forward when he walks out the door. You can have a beard, but do you cut your nails? Clean your ears, women watch all these things and faster than you would think.

We would like to believe that men with these traits would care just as much about us if given the chance. Style and relationships I find seem to be intertwined as much as many don't want to admit the world of fashion is one that is vain we see everything before we hear anything.

Look to men like Andre 300, Kanye West, Jonny Depp, Brad Pitt, Chris Brown, Christiano Ronaldo and other with similar style for inspiration. A little detail goes a long way."


--
Administrator
Shannon H. "Empress"
www.TrueQueen.com

Shoe Of The Day

What was inspiring about Stefano Bemer was his love and obsession for being able to find every kind of possible leather and material to make his shoes with. This pair in particular was made using shark skin leather. I always had a love/hate relationship with shark skin leather during my apprenticeship with him. Depending on the shoe's model and the cut of it I either loved or hated the fact that it was made with shark skin. This model I actually really liked. The picture may not give it much justice but it's feel and texture is unlike any other skin that I came encounter with. I particularly liked it in a burgundy color and thought that the burgundy really brought out the details of the skin. He used many other skins that I will post for you in future articles but for now please enjoy this because it is not too often that you find a shoe maker who uses these obscure leathers.

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!!!

The Appreciation Of A Shoe's Details

Shoes By: Gaziano & Girling

In the bespoke shoe world, many small details are added to the shoe to set it apart from an any ordinary ready-to-wear pair. One of these details is called a 'fiddleback waist' or 'violina,' in Italian. This particular detail happens to be my favorite as well as my least favorite. As a customer I love the symmetry of it and how it plays to the shoe's shape and curves by accentuating their features. As a shoemaker, it is the hardest detail to add to the shoe. It is time consuming, has to be precise in its shape and needs to match perfectly on each shoe so that one does not differ from the other. This is not easy to do, but when done well it is very much worth the effect that the detail provides for both the customer and the maker. It is a sign of pride in your craftsmanship and a sign of elegance in your shoe.











There are many steps to this process of which I had some pictures to a few of them. This stage above is the very beginning of it, creating the v-shape within mid-sole to produce the effect on the outer sole. As I said before and which you might be able to tell in the pictures, the precision of your drawing on each shoe is immensely important or you will create a pair of shoes with obvious differences between them. You will see in the pictures below that instead of creating a v-shape with a sharp middle point serving as the high point to the waist, I created more of a hump in the middle of the waist. Considering that I used the v-shape on all of the shoes I made before these, I wanted to do something differently for this pair.











Here you will see the finishing effect of the fiddleback. There are many other stages to it that I unfortunately did not have pictures to show you. One of these is when you apply the sole onto the shoe and have to use a piece of glass to thin out the sole's leather to create the beveled waist. This detail was once something that only bespoke shoes offered but as machinery and technology get better I believe that this will find itself spreading more and more into the ready-to-wear industry. Some makers who currently use this feature on their RTW shoes are Gaziano & Girling and John Lobb.













Above are some pictures of my other shoes. On my latest shoe, pictured on the left, I did not apply the v-shape and while I don't regret not doing it, I realized that I much more appreciate the looks of the v-shape on one's sole.