What I Am Wearing - My First Bespoke Suit!

I have finally received my first bespoke suit and I absolutely love it!! There is quite a long story behind getting it, however I really can't divulge too much on that but let's just say that it was a collaboration of artisans that put it together. This means, that it was cut by Chittleborough & Morgan (hence the wide lapel influence from Tommy Nutter), and then put together by a trouser maker at Huntsman and a jacket maker at Gieves & Hawkes....the beauty of being positioned on The Row.... As you may be able to see it was made of a navy flannel, something that I won't get to wear too many more times before summer hits. So, at first chance of some cold weather, I decided to put it on, take some snaps and show all of you. However it was going to be a rainy day, and for the sake of not ruining my nice brown shoes, I decided to go with my black Hugo Boss loafers. But this was my downfall....as I later realized that by doing this, I was participating in the act that I love to hate: seeing men wearing beautiful suits with non-correlating shoes, aka crap shoes. While not saying that my shoes are really crap, but next to a bespoke suit, they are. I instantly regretted it but couldn't really do anything about it so sucked it up and promised to never do it again..... And I just want to thank all of those that purchased my old shoes, because the money you exchanged me for them, went straight to this suit, something that I will cherish for the rest of my life!

Today's Favorites - Bespoke Austerity Brogues

I have a friend who like me, once ventured outside of the US to go and study shoemaking (among other things, such as be with his wife...also like me). That adventure landed him in Germany, where he is currently residing and continuing to perfect his craft and skills, in the hopes (of which will occur) of becoming a bespoke shoemaker who offers lovely shoes to people around the world. On occasion, he gets a chance to pop over to London, of which he will usually stop in to have a chat, only this time, he brought a pair of shoes for me to also shine. While he is hard critic on himself (as one should be to become great) and feels that he is still far off from becoming a credited maker who could offer shoes to clients for purchase, I on the other hand, believe that he is not far off. The hardest part in shoemaking is what is called 'finishing' the shoe, i.e. making the sole and heel area look flawless, and it is something that takes a long time to perfect. And while he still has some work to do before it's tip top, I think that his progression is very good and wanted to show all of you, as I thought that some of you might appreciate it as well.....

Another Go At A Personal Patina

A little while ago, I had found myself at pub after work, as is a very common thing to do here in England. While I had a good time and can't complain, I noticed that the next morning, it appeared that I had spilled a bit of alcoholic substance on my shoe and it had unfortunately left a lovely stain for me. Now this pair, the 'Dryden' by Allen Edmonds, is my oldest dress shoe, the first one I ever purchased with my own money. So, needless to say I was quite upset because I love the original color of them and did not want to ever change that. But I could not live with having that stain always there yet knew that at least they were not ruined completely, considering the fact that I am now not afraid to dye my shoes with the possibility of consequence.












I had just dyed a pair of my loafers brown (and therefore did not want to do it again), and pretty much have everything else in an oxford with the exception of an all black shoe, so I decided that black would be the ticket. But I wanted to have them slightly unique looking. I thought it would be cool if I could dye the toe blue (some sort of royal or around that shade) and try to fade it to black at the defined cap brogue line. As you can see, I started with the blue on the cap (which ended up being a lot darker than anticipated) and then started using the black for the rest of the shoe, of which I idiotically forgot to take pictures of. It ended up being quite a pain because the black dye that I was using was awful and did not seep into the leather almost whatsoever.  I therefore, built up as much as I could with the black to create a base and then went over the black area with the blue dye (of which was slightly higher quality, getting 'into' the leather). Because of that, I almost ended up with a uniform black shoe. It looked a bit dull so I thought that if I stripped off the toe a bit with some spirit (alcohol), then it would give it some more character. Needless to say, it did so, but not in the way that I was hoping for. It almost became a more aqua blue than any shade of royal.

While I am not disappointed with the turnout, I do wish that I did not spill any beer on my shoe..... :-(

What I Am Wearing

One of the funniest things about growing up, is doing things that you always said that you wouldn't. Obviously, what I am referring to is not something that dire, but it is still hypocritical of me nonetheless and that is the fact that I continuously find myself wearing black shoes with navy trousers. Granted, this was not something that I was so against, but rather preached that navy was always better complimented with brown. Yet, in Europe, where one finds themselves walking about much more than one does in America (in a big city), the prospect of rain, sleet, snow or whatever coming, scares me from wearing and thus possibly ruining my light colored shoes. Therefore, I find myself putting on black shoes and dark trousers, as they are much harder to stain. What's even funnier, is that as I put this together more often, I quite like it, especially since it allows me to wear a bold color sock and have a nice contrast between my shoes, socks and trousers...

Shoes: Miro by Septieme Largeur
Trousers: H&M
Sweater (jumper): Primark
Socks: Duchamp
Tie: XMI Platinum
Dress shirt: Primark

Customer Finds - Old Cleverley Bespoke

One of my colleagues recently brought me two pairs of shoes that his grandfather had passed down to him. Now when this happens, it may be a really old pair of Church's, Allen Edmonds or an older label like Poulsen & Skone or Nunn Bush, but these puppies just happen to be George Cleverley bespoke shoes, from the early 1960's, and while that may not seem that old, 50 years is still a good amount of time. I asked my friend to figure out how much they cost at the time and after a little bit of questioning to his grandfather, he told me that they cost 21 Guineas. That does not sound like a lot, but when you think about the time difference and the inflation rate, I will have you know that this amount is now equivalent to about 3000 GBP. It's always amazing to see how much the value of money has changed and how much more it will change, maybe one day being worth virtually nothing at the rate that it is going. Nevertheless, I found it to be quite interesting to see a shoe that was made when Mr. George Cleverley was actually around and overseeing production. And while the shoes were relatively similar to the standard we have today, there were some small details in the stitching of the upper that seemed to stand out, as a mark of the era.

Gaziano & Girling Deco Range

While this is not really 'first to bring you news,' I figured that since you can't find the entire Deco range in colored pictures, I would put that up for all of you that might have yet to see them. And for those that might not be familiar, the Deco range is a new array of shoes produced by Gaziano & Girling that are meant to offer that happy medium between RTW and bespoke. You might wonder what that means? Well, having the intentions of giving RTW a 'bespoke' look, they had to tighten the waist of the shoe, and considering the only way to do that was to do it by hand, that is what they did. So for every Deco model available, the waist was lasted by hand, thus providing a RTW shoe that actually has handwork put into it, unlike the millions of liars in the shoe industry who claim to have 'hand-made' RTW shoes. Well, there is not much more to say other than feast your eye's on these beauties and enjoy!