Today's Shoes

Day

GJ Cleverley bespoke three-eyelet plain-toe bluchers in chestnut Russian reindeer with single leather soles. Cleverley's Russian reindeer is certainly something of a gimmick. I don't think that it's the most durable skin available, and I don't think that it is the most appropriate for shoemaking. In the 18th Century, when these skins were originally tanned, Russian reindeer leather was mostly used for bookbinding. The two centuries that it has spent on the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Plymouth probably didn't do wonders for it, either. I have heard reports that it splits fairly easily. Despite it all, though, I do love the skin and the shoes it can make. I have two pairs made from it, and I love them both. A friend of mine has recently been ruminating about whether he should bespeak a pair from Cleverley made from Russian reindeer and if so in what pattern. I think he's leaning toward a double buckle monkstrap cap-toe, something that I had never considered but that would be excellent. If he doesn't do it, I might. Heck, even if he does do it, I might.

Evening

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with reverse welts and double leather soles (model 975, Barrie last).

Today's Shoes

Alden long wing bluchers with reverse welting in Color #8 shell cordovan with double leather soles (model 975, Barrie last). One of the not-so-wonderful aspects of shell cordovan shoes is that they will develop a milky white film on the surface of the leather if they haven't been worn for a week or two. It's composed of fat used in the tanning process that seeps to the surface of the leather, and it can just be wiped off with a soft cloth. The problem, though, is when this film develops along the stitching around the throat and eyelet facings of the shoe -- it's hard to get rid of when it develops there.

Today's Shoes

Morning

Moreschi penny driving mocs in dark brown suede with brown leather penny strap and trim. These shoes were a special order. I would have preferred them to be all suede, but Moreschi doesn't offer that option. They do, however, make an excellent driving moc -- better than Tod's, and cheaper, too.

Day

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with reverse welting and double leather soles (model 975, Barrie last).

Today's Shoes

Day

Edward Green bal austerity brogues in antique burgundy calf with single leather soles with a double row of brass slugs in the toe of the sole (Beaulieu model, 888 last). The shoes pictured above are identical to mine except that they are made on the 82 last instead of the 888. Most shoemakers will recommend brass slugs in the toe of the sole as a mechanism for reducing the speed with which the sole toes wear down. They don't work. Only steel plates work. (Well, hard rubber plates work too.) But the brass slugs still look cool.

Evening

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with a reverse welt and double leather soles (model 975, Barrie last).

Today's Shoes

Day

Alden saddle bal in Color #8 shell cordovan with single leather soles (model 994, Barrie last). You will sometimes see Italian saddle shoes, but they typically have a saddle that narrows considerably as it approaches the welt. These Aldens are American-style saddles in all their trad glory. When the shoe is white with a black saddle, it screams "golf," but in burgundy shell cordovan with a burgundy shell cordovan saddle, it's an understated business shoe with a little bit of eccentricity. I'd like it better on a last other than Barrie, but it's still a good shoe. The picture is lifted from the Alden of San Francisco website, an excellent purveyor of Alden shoes.


Evening

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with reverse welting and double leather soles (model 975, Barrie last).

Today's Shoes

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with reverse welting and double leather soles (model 975, Barrie last). Alas, there can be no doubt now: they are too big in the heel.

Today's Shoes

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with a reverse welt and double leather soles (975 model, Barrie last). Still some heel slippage, but they're beautiful shoes. The creases across the vamps are beginning to get the characteristic shell cordovan lightening.

Today's Shoes

Day

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with a double leather sole and a split reverse welt (model 975, Barrie last). You may recall that I complained about some heel slippage with these shoes on their first two wearings. Heel slippage is what causes blisters, and I don't like blisters. My hope was that the slippage was caused by the stiffness of the double leather soles: that they're so thick and stiff that they don't flex enough when they're new, which causes the heel to slip as the wearer walks. Well, after this wearing, I'm more hopeful. There is still some minor slippage with my right heel, but nothing with my left. Maybe next time, we can dispense with slippage altogether.

Incidentally, a strange but true fact: typically, one's dominant foot is slightly smaller than one's off foot. I'm right-footed, and my right foot is probably a quarter size smaller than my left foot. How do I know that my experience is typical? I asked Tony Gaziano, who has examined more feet than just about anybody who isn't a podiatrist.

Evening

Santoni three-eyelet plain-toe ankle boots in caramel brown calfskin with a rubber sole. It's a nasty night tonight.

Today's Shoes

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with an extended sole, reverse welt, and double leather soles (model 975, Barrie last). Barrie is a brute of a last. I ordered these a half a size smaller than most shoes that I buy, and I still wonder if they're not too big. Well, not really. They do slip in the heel, but they break in the right place and the spacing between the eyelet facings when laced up is correct. I think that the fact that these are in shell cordovan is what is causing me problems -- that and the fact that the double soles are still stiff. The stiffness of the soles prevents them from bending as readily as they should when I flex my foot, which tends to cause more heel slippage. I hope that as the soles break in the slippage will decrease. We'll see.

These shoes do look great with dark jeans, which means that they're quite the multitaskers. I can't wait for it to be cold enough to wear my gray flannels again.

Today's Shoes

Day

Alden long wing bluchers in Color #8 shell cordovan with an extended split reverse welt on double leather soles (model 975, Barrie last). Back in the '50s and '60s, if an American man wore a suit with any regularity, he probably had a pair of wingtips; and if he had a pair of wingtips, chances are that they were long wings of a design very similar to these. They're called long wings because instead of the wings curving down to the welt about halfway down the shoe, they continue all the way to the heel. You'll notice that these are derivative of the wholecut blucher with the facings laid on and, like the wings, extended all the way to the heel. I don't know if this design originated in the United States, but I have never seen any European maker produce something like it. But every American maker, current, defunct, or otherwise, has it in their catalogue. The most commonly-seen incarnation of it from its heyday forty or fifty years ago was made by Florsheim. It was part of Florsheim's Imperial line of shoes, which for many Americans represented the ne plus ultra of men's shoes. The soles were all leather, of course, stained to look like wood. There were nails at the waist of the shoe and in double rows all around the all-leather heels. There was no rubber tip in the heel; instead, there was a triangular steel cleat on the outside edge. Shell cordovan was used, but so were grained calfs, in particular black and tan. I don't remember anything else about the shoes that my father wore when I was a kid except that he had a pair of Florsheim long wings in black grained calf (they called it cashmere calf). Those were some shoes.

So are these. They have rubber dovetails instead of the triangular steel cleat; but otherwise, they are the same: big and thick and heavy, and they could double as home defense devices when not on your feet. It's not an accident that they're made on the Barrie last, which is Alden's biggest, clunkiest last. They just wouldn't look right on anything more shapely. In a fit of nostalgia for my father's shoes, I bought these last week from Tom Park at LeatherSoul Hawaii. Nostalgia aside, these are growing on me. Not every shoe needs to be super-sleek.

Incidentally, this shoe is experiencing something of a renaissance recently. You may know that Brooks Brothers hired Thom Browne to design their new Black Fleece line. Browne likes '60s throw-back garments (shrunk to minuscule proportions), and nothing is more appropriate to wear with a '60s throwback gray flannel suit than long wings in shell cordovan. And Browne offers those in the Black Fleece line, too -- made by Alden, exactly like my 975s only with a signature cloth pull tab at the heel. Oh, and Brooks Brothers wants $280 more per pair than Tom Park charges for regular old 975s. Thom Browne can keep his stupid pull tab.

Evening

Alden saddle oxford in Color #8 shell cordovan with single leather soles (model 994, Barrie last). Yet another classic American shoe. You sometimes also see this with a burgundy vamp and quarter and a black saddle.