New Shoes

Well, not yet. But they're in the works. Gravati has come out with a beautiful brand-new three-eyelet blucher with V-shaped quarters. Jim Pierce, who owns the shoe concession at Harold's in the Heights, ordered it in snuff-colored Janus suede with light-colored Rapid stitching, light-colored laces, and a microcellular rubber soles. It's also on the 692 last, one that I hadn't seen before. It's a nice, smart round-toe last without quite the elongation of the 683. I like it quite a bit. All in all, the shoe is outstanding. It's undeniably sporty and casual, however, and that's not really what I was looking for. And so I ordered the same model on the same last in a snuff-colored cashmere suede with single leather soles. They'll hopefully be in by April or May, and I'm looking forward to them. Jim also said that he had ordered a new French-style two eyelet plain-toe blucher for late spring/early summer. By French-style, I mean that the vamp-quarter seam is a straight line. It's a very popular style for several Parisian makers like Corthay and Dimitri Gomez. Jim didn't order it thusly, but I think that it would be great in that red/amber grained Tibet #39 calfskin.