Today's Shoes

Day

Edward Green bespoke bals in dark brown calf. The dominant feature of these shoes is that the U-throat, the diamond-cap, and the counter are all done with the pie crust-style hand-sewing that typifies the Edward Green Dover. Edward Green's bespoke program is now defunct since their lastmaker, Tony Gaziano, left to found Gaziano & Girling with Dean Girling, who is one of the best bespoke makers around. Tony designed these shoes based on an idea of mine, Tony made the last for them, and Dean made them. After they want out on their own, Tony asked permission to photograph them with G&G trees for display on the G&G website; and I readily agreed. He liked the design well enough that a rendition of it called the Gable is included in his RTW line.

I'm really proud of this design. It all started with a Sutor Mantellassi shoe that I saw a picture of. The shoe was a wholecut with twin-needle stitching forming a standard cap-toe design. I thought that it would look good with a wing-cap and a U throat, and I asked if Gravati could do it. They said that they could not. I asked Ron Rider if Martegani could do it. He said yes, and a few months later I got my hot little hands on the finished shoes. I liked the result so much that I decided to get a bespoke rendition of it. One of Tony's design signatures is the diamond tip, so I decided to replace the wing-cap with a diamond-cap. I also thought that the Dover-style pie crust-style would be more elegant. I think the results are spectacular. But I'm hardly objective.

Evening

John Lobb Paris Venetian loafers in dark brown calf (Chester model, 6000 last).