Today's Shoes

Vass half brogue bals in cognac Scotch grain calf with double leather soles (Peter last). The shoe pictured above is identical to my shoes except for the color and texture of the leather used for the upper. Note that the medallion is very large and intricate and that it continues over the edge of the top of the shoe. This style is common in Budapest and Vienna. Vass calls this model the Alt Englisch, probably because the closed-laced style of throat is most closely associated with English shoemakers. Were this shoe made with an open-laced throat (ie, as a blucher), it would then be called an Alt Wien since the half-brogue blucher is as synonymous with Viennese shoemaking as the full-brogue blucher is with Budapest shoemaking.