Balancing Your Outfit

Expensive suits, crap shoes (with the exception of Colin Farrell, who looks to have some decent ones)

Everything has its place, whether it's cheap shoes, expensive suits, mediocre shirts, wrinkled trousers etc., but too often do you see a lot of men jumbling them all together in a way that does not make sense. There are ways to mix and match them, get away with it and still look relatively good. Take me for example, often I wear cheap shirts purchased at Primark, and then pair them with expensive suits and shoes. Most of the time, no one notices, but I can tell you that there is a difference, and I can see it, as well as feel it. When I look at my colleagues £100+ shirts, their collars and quality of shirt material look infinitely better than mine. Granted, I do this on purpose as I deal with polish all day long, particularly black polish, which I will have you know is very hard to get off of a white shirt, and therefore don't want to wear nice shirts that I will constantly run the risk of ruining. And since the collars have built in stiffeners, they usually look decent enough....allowing me to balance my outfit, as the other articles of clothing within my outfit tend to correlate in price. But the other day, I made the mistake of wearing a very nice suit, with some shoes that did not correlate, in price, quality, or look and realized that so many men do this, and ruin their entire look, as I had.

Expensive Suit, cheap shoes = no good

Expensive suit, expensive shoes = good

For the life of me, I can't understand why most men will fork out loads of money on their suits but then will only want to spend 1/5 of that on their shoes. I mean, if you can afford a £1000 suit, then certainly you can afford £400+ shoes. For me, the rule would be that you should spend half of what you are giving for your suit, on your shoes. Just to clarify, if your suit is £1000, then ideally (in my twisted mind) your shoes should be cost around £500. This way, you maintain a good balance in your outfit, because it is so amazingly noticeable when someone is wearing a decent suit with the crappiest £100 shoes. When you do this, you stick out like a sore thumb and no matter how nice or expensive your suit is, your shoes just kill the entire outfit. However, there are ways to fool people as some shoes can look real good and expensive but not be. For example, when you shine a shoe up, that has a decent leather but be a mid range shoe, you could easily pass it off as something of higher quality due to the maintenance that you have given it. It is surprising how a shine can make a shoe look so much more expensive than it actually is. But this will require a bit of knowledge in knowing what is able to get there and what isn't, as a cheap leather won't look good no matter how high you shine it.

Photo Courtesy of Rugged Old Salt

Both Shoes by Spigola by Koji Suzuki, Photos courtesy of Rugged Old Salt

NOT  THESE BELOW

Now, the buck doesn't stop with incorrect price correlation within your articles of clothing, but also needs to take into account the types of styles that you are putting together. What I mean by this is the act mixing trendy attire with classic attire, certain Italian shoes with English suits etc. If you have a nice Savile Row suit with a very English cut, it would look absolutely silly to pair it with some ostentatious trendy designer shoe by LV or Gucci. They just don't go...and that's not to say that the English cut suit has to go with English made shoes, because that's not the case either. It's about matching styles. Elegant for elegant, trendy with trendy. When you start to blur the lines a bit too much, you throw off the balance of your outfit and thus your look. Obviously there are some style icons who can do this and get away with it, but it's very difficult to do. If you are wearing a very slim cut Italian suit with soft lines, then don't be afraid to wear your Ferragamo tassel loafers....but then you would want to sTay away from some heavy, double-soled British brogue. Like for like, in style and price, will allow you to keep a good balance in your outfit at all times.

Today's Favorites - John Lobb

This shoe, by John Lobb, called 'Abbey' just might be my all-time favorite shoe ever created by the illustrious maker. There are many things that draw me to it. First off, the fact that I feel that it cannot really be labeled. It's hard to create a shoe that does not really fall into one of the common categories, at least not a classic shoe. Maybe some awful trendy shoe that is such a concoction of crap that it does not fall under anything concrete, but a shoe as elegant as this, without being able to be categorized is amazing, at least to me. Sure you could call it a slip-on shoe, but it's not a loafer. It's definitely not an oxford, nor is it a monk. It's a hybrid, but an elegant one. Its unique simplicity is breathtaking, having cleanliness all around the shoe, with I believe only one seam. (Not sure if there is a heel seam) Paired with John Lobb's lovely Museum calf, this shoe truly stands among the best of them, and not only because it looks good, but because it was a design created by the people at Lobb at a time when everything under the sun has already been done, yet they managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat by creating something that hadn't, and looked damn good!

The Great Divide - Nice Suits & Junk Shoes

Picture: Gaziano & Girling 'Hanly'

I have always been a very observant person, particularly when it came to one's attire. Like many people have been so bold to claim (even myself), 'you can tell about a person based on his outfit,' and in my opinion, particularly when it comes to his shoes. This is precisely why many interviews end in a matter of seconds. Because your appearance, whether you know it or not, speaks wonders about not only who you are, but also how you will be.

Before I ever came to England, as many people may think about what they might see (sartorially), I thought of well-dressed gentlemen, three-piece suits, tweed, heavy brogues, cravats etc. I thought that I would see a bunch of well-dressed English gentlemen, particularly on Savile Row. But sadly, things have changed here, as they have in America, in Italy and most likely, all over the world. The younger generation tend not to appreciate putting all of the pieces of their wardrobe puzzle together, as thoughtfully or as elegantly as their grandfathers did. While I have my own theories on why this may be, it is beginning to speak wonders as the age of cheap shoes and companies knocking off others is growing bigger and more powerful. Hence, why Kurt Geiger owns either Selfridges or Harrods entire shoe floor (think Nordstrom with more shoes), and stocks cheap shoes, like the one below, at a place that sells luxury clothing.

Because of this naive generalization that I had, I am always looking at men's outfits, particularly at their feet, hoping to catch a glimpse of greatness. And I must say, that I have definitely seen some people that stacked up as some of the sharpest dressers that I have yet to see, but sadly I have also seen some of the worst. The biggest discrepancy here, especially with these young gentleman, is that they could not care less about their shoes. They wear these absolute rubbish, cheap shoes and pair them with their nice (or decent) suits. It's the most contradictory thing that I have ever seen. I mean, look at the difference between the top pic and the one directly above. Do you think that the second shoe should be paired with any suit above 500 GBP or any suit at all? It's a glued on rubber (or some sort of cheap composite material) sole that looks awful and even makes your expensive suit look bad. Granted, I know that everyone does not have the money to go out and get G&G's or Edward Green's, but there are other alternatives that are much more cost-conscious but will still leave you looking presentable, like Loake or Herring.

The good snob that I am, I asked three of my friends at work to be guinea pigs for my blog post and they so fortunately agreed. Therefore I have put them in order of worst to best (up to down) in how I find their sartorial knowledge of pairing expensive suits with shoes. Luckily one of my better friends (good 'ol Colin, above) at work is not so sensitive and allowed me to use him as an example of someone who just a) abuses his shoes, b) has the cheapest shoes ever and c) wears them EVERYDAY!!! I always give him a hard time, saying that if he is going to be working on a street like Savile Row, then he should not only get better shoes but also take better care of them. I mean if I walked into a store like Gieves & Hawkes, I would not feel that I could take any advice from a guy who shoes were just simply thrashed. A well-dressed gentleman, needs to be a well-dressed gentleman from head to toe. Yet, you find here in England, that Colin is the majority and my friends below are the minority and I just don't get it, as this used to be a country where the majority of men were sharp from top to bottom.

 

Asking my friend above why he thought many people shirked out on their shoes, he told me that because many feel they shouldn't spend a lot of money on something that they are going to be using to walk on concrete. What's funny about this, is it is precisely why you should invest in a good pair of shoes. Because concrete is hard and is not natural to the human body for walking, and therefore the support system in our body needs to be properly held. The only way to come close to doing this is with good shoes. Shitty one's don't provide anything but a cheap price tag and a bad look. In my opinion, it's because people just aren't really educated anymore in the ways of appreciating one's attire. Used to be that men would sit down every night and brush their nice leather shoes, to remove all of the dirt and dust. It would surprise me now if most men just kick off their shoes and throw them into the closet for the next day. But why? Why spend all of your money on your suit and just leave yourself looking like a fool with your $100 shoes???

Shoe Pricing - From Cost of Production to Retail Price

The hardest thing about starting a shoe line, or really just starting your business plan to a shoe line, is coming up with the price that you want to sell your shoes at, retail value. There are so many factors that will dictate what that final price will be, factors that you might never have thought about before, like the fact that retailers will mark up a shoe's wholesale price 2-3 times over (e.g. wholesale price = $100, retail price would be = $200-$300). But those are just the two end prices, let alone the cost of production versus the cost of what, me, the shoe designer, would pay the factory, for each pair. This is what I am going through right now, as I decide where I want to make my shoes (Italy vs. England) and how I am going to be able to do my best to balance price vs quality. Because all in all, I want to make a good quality, goodyear welted shoe, that can last a good amount of time for my customers, but at the same time don't want them to retail at way above the common man's price range. This dilemma is a big one, and has made me realize why some shoes are indeed, very expensive.











Shoes at Top of Page: Allen Edmonds
Shoes Above: Grenson

In my opinion, globalization is the reason that I, and many other designers/makers are having or had this same problem. If you can remember, there used to be a number of fantastic shoemakers in the US, that made good quality shoes, such as Florsheim and Johnston & Murphy. But now, due to the amount of cheap labor and materials, many of those same companies decided to take that lower-priced route and shirked on their quality of labor and materials, thus resulting in shit shoes. Granted, there were a couple of American makers that stood their ground, such as Allen Edmonds and Alden, but even now, you can see where the quality is slowly deteriorating on Allen Edmond's models, or you will find the same quality, but the price has gone up and you no longer get a pair of extra laces, nice shoe bags or some sort of shoe horn. It's just the shoes and some cloth that they wrap the shoe around. So when you wonder why shoes are so expensive these days, thank globalization for it, because in reality, the high quality, goodyear welted shoes that you think should be cheaper, in fact should not! Grenson, for example, can make a beautiful, well-made shoe, but they have now chosen to re-evaluate their company, and with that decided to start mass producing by having shoes made in India, with either glued or blake stitched soles so that they could retail at $300-$400. Because their high end goodyear welted shoes, would sell for 350-450 GBP, which would then result to around $700. It's not a bad thing, it just is what it is. Companies want to stay afloat, and unfortunately because of the way the world is right now, that's what they have to do.

Shoes Above: Stefano Bemer

Back to my dilemma. I am sitting here thinking, 'Okay, for my customer, I want to make a high styled shoe. Something classic but with a modern touch yet it is absolutely pertinent that I make a good quality shoe or else I would just be a complete hypocrite.' This is what I tell myself. But then, I am stuck with knowing that it will cost me around 120 GBP (minimum) to buy a goodyear welted shoe with high quality leathers from a British factory (and who knows what it actually cost them to make it?). Then let's say that I only want to make 50 GBP profit on each pair. (That's not asking too much now!) That would mean that my wholesale price would be 170 GBP to sell to retailers. So let's say that I sell it to retailer X in London. Their price would at least be 425 GBP. You might say that this is not a lot, and when comparing it to a pair of John Lobbs, it's not a super high price in reality. But now, considering that the British pound is the strongest form of currency and it's market will only be a small part of my business, we have to take into account what that same 170 GBP wholesale shoe would sell for around the world. So now let's assume that retailer Y in the States wants to buy my shoes (and the x-rate is 1.6 dollars to the British pound). That would make my wholesale price at $272 which would then make the retail price $680 and that does not even take into account the tariffs that US custom's is going to tag on. So, to make a simple goodyear welted shoe, with some nice leather that will last the average man around 10-20 years with re-soles, you are looking at 425 GBP or around $700. How many people can afford $700 or 425 GBP shoes? That's my dilemma!










Shoes Above: John Lobb