Today's Shoes

Day

Stuart's Choice four-eyelet plain-toe bals with floating medallions and a chevron-shaped throat in dark brown calf with single leather soles. Quality in shoes does not vary linearly with price. By that, I mean that an $800 pair of shoes isn't likely to be twice as good as a $400 pair of shoes. A 100% increase in price may only yield a 10% or 20% increase in quality of make. Stuart's Choice shoes, made by Grenson, are maybe 20% to 30% lower in price than Edward Green shoes, but they are nearly Edward Green's equal in quality (my principal objection is the quality of sole leather used -- EG's soles are like iron, while Grenson's are not). And yet, I would still rather have EG shoes, as evidenced by the fact that I usually war these when the forecast calls for rain.

Evening

Gravati plain-toe monkstraps in dark brown peccary with combination leather/rubber soles (16371, 640 last).

Today's Shoes

Day

Paul Stuart Stuart's Choice plain-toe bals with a floating medallion in dark brown calf with single leather soles. Paul Stuart's top-of-the-line shoes used to be made by Edward Green. They grew tired of EG's delivery problems -- the story that I've heard is that EG could not deliver the shoes ordered in a timely manner -- and so they unceremoniously dumped EG in the late '90s. They replaced them with Grenson, another venerable Northampton shoe manufactured. Grenson is actually a contraction of William Green & Son (I don't know if William Green was in any way related to Edward Green), and the initial Grenson-made Paul Stuart shoes were labeled something like "William Green for Paul Stuart". The intent with the labeling was plainly to convince the casual shoe buyer that nothing had changed, and either Edward Green or consumers complained about the attempted deception. Paul Stuart relented and changed the label to Stuart's Choice. They no longer use that, either, although I still call their top-of-the-line shoes that for ease of communication. In any event, the shoes that Grenson makes for Paul Stuart are in keeping with the rest of Paul Stuart's merchandise: high-quality, classic-looking at first glance, but subtly unusual and flamboyant. These shoes are no exception to that. A plain-toe shoe in dark brown calf is no unusual; but throw in a floating medallion and a unique V-shaped vamp-quarter seam, and you have a unique shoe. These are on a classic square-toe last, and I like them a good deal. I just wish that they fit better.

Evening

Gravati four-eyelet plain-toe bluchers in dark brown Lama calf with combination leather/rubber soles (16493, 640 last).

Today's Shoes

Day

Paul Stuart plain-toe four-eyelet bals with a floating medallion in dark brown calf, made by Grenson. At one time, Paul Stuart had some of its private label shoes made by Edward Green. Fed up with inconsistent and untimely deliveries, they dumped Green in the mid to late '90s and replaced them with Grenson. Grenson's actual corporate name is (or was, at that time) William Green & Son, so PS included that name on their label. They pulled it after getting complaints that it was a deceptive attempt to persuade casual consumers that the shoes were still made by EG. These aren't as well-made as EG shoes, but they are impressive -- the designs that PS commissions from Grenson are consistently unique and excellent.

Evening

Crockett & Jones Handgrade split-toe bluchers with a hand-sewn apron and toe seam (Cornhill model, 330 last). These shoes are actually private-label Tom James shoes (I believe that IAG, the parent company of Tom James has an equity interest in C&J, although C&J makes lots of private-label shoes for lots of companies), but it was easy enough to tell that they were C&J-made. The interior markings and the faux counter both give it away instantly.