Today's Shoes

Vass six-eyelet blucher Budapesters in Cognac pebble-grain calf with reverse welting and a double leather sole (with a hard rubber plate inset at the toe of the sole) (Budapest last). The shoe show above is the same leather and last, but the design is slightly different. It doesn't have the reverse welting that my shoes do, it has five eyelets instead of six, and the quarter seam and counter don't meet in a curved V like they do on my shoes.

Today's Shoes

Vass six-eyelet reverse-welted wingtip blucher in cognac Scotch grain calf with double leather soles and rubber plates in the toes of the soles (Budapester model, Budapest last). The shoes are identical to those pictured above except for two details. First, the quarter edge and counter on my shoes meet in a V, unlike those pictured. Second, and obviously, mine are Scotch grain while those pictured are smooth leather. Vass calls reverse welting "Goyser stitching". I don't know if that's specifically a Hungarian shoemaking term, if it's common to all areas of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, or if it's even more general than that.

Today's Shoes

Vass wingtip bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with double leather soles (Budapester model, Peter last). These shoes spent a couple of years as samples for Gabor Halmos, the Vass US representative, so they've acquired some of the patina that shell cordovan is known for. It's not a patina, really. It's a gradual wearing-off of the color that the shell cordovan is dyed. Shell cordovan is not an animal hide; rather, it is a subcutaneous membrane around the rumps of horses. Its fibers are very dense and don't take the dye very well, and this natural resistance to dye is accentuated by the fact that it undergoes vegetable tanning. It's simply impossible to obtain the depth or saturation of color that one finds in chrome-tanned leather with vegetable tanning. The result of all of this is that shell cordovan tends to lose color with age, although not uniformly. Heel counters, toes, and crease lines will lose color more rapidly, giving the shoes a sort of reverse-antiqued look.

It's worth noting that Alden redyes their Color #8 shell cordovan to give it a deeper burgundy color. Other makers, including Vass, do not do this, the result being that Alden Color #8 shoes are always darker than those from any other maker.

Today's Shoes

Just for you, Sara, I've posted a picture of shoes equivalent to the shoes I wore today. Not actually my shoes, mind you, but equivalent to mine. The problem, aside from my sloth, is that most of the shoes I own are one-off special orders, so pictures usually don't exist unless I take them.

Day

Vass burgundy cap-toe bals on the P2 last with a beveled waist.

Evening

Vass cognac Scotch grain reverse-welted full brogue derbies on Budapest last. This style of shoe is called a Budapester because it is the characteristic shoe style of Hungarian shoe manufacturers. Yes, Hungarian shoe manufacturers. Largely because of Budapest's status as one of the capitals of the Austro-Hungarian empire after 1867, the shoemaking industry was quite advanced by the end of the empire in 1918. Neither the lean interwar years nor World War II nor the Communist domination of the country until 1989 managed to kill it. Vass is one of the makers that sprung up after the fall of Communism, and these shoes are the quintessential expression of Hungarian shoemaking.