Toe Shapes And One's Country

Crockett & Jones 'Edgeware'

Having been fortunate enough, it has been with pleasure that I have seen (and now lived in) a few different countries in my life. And what always seems to amaze me, is how a whole country can be influenced by the same thing i.e. dress in the same sort of manner. Obviously, you will have those that stand out on either end, being that there will be some who dress great and unique and others who seem to have just completely missed the memo on the simple rules of dressing. But what you do generally find, is that depending on where you come from, there will be a toe shape that seems to be favored by the majority of your culture's population. What's even funnier, is that the more that person is into his/her culture the less willing they are to break out and try something new (in the toe-shape world). For example, time and time again, have I seen older American men wanting a certain shape of shoe and if it was not available they would not look at anything else, not even try to see if it may look good.

The States

--Older Men (40+)

All of my years selling shoes in America,  I really began to understand just how much the older gentleman of the States love a big, fat, round-toed shoe. Now I am not talking about a round-toe like the one on my first prototype post, I am talking about one that has no elogation to it, nor any shape for that matter. One that is very symmetrical, just like a circle is. Don't get me wrong, I like a round-toe too, but at least one that has some character to it. It therefore comes as no surprise that the Allen Edmonds 'Park Avenue' and Cole Haan 'Pinch Tassel' (see below) are among the all-time top selling dress shoes in America.

Allen Edmonds

Cole Haan

--Younger Men (>40)

As I am a young American male, it gives me great displeasure to talk down upon my fellow breathren but when it comes to their choices in attire, I just cannot help myself. Simply put: we are among the worse dressers, especially when it comes to our shoes. The ugliest crazes have come out of the States: Skecher's Shape Ups, square-toe shoes, the boot brands Jo Ghost and Mark Nason, and last but not least, Steve Madden and Kenneth Cole (see below). Apart from the Shape Ups, the younger American generation embraced all of these atrocities. And to top it off, even after the trends have died they continue to wear many of these awful things, worst of all being the chunky square-toes. It's sad, very sad..... But I will say, that as bad as we can be, I do strongly believe that my generation (and those younger) are slowly but surely getting better and becoming more conscious of what it means to dress stylish as opposed to trendy.













 The UK

 --Older Men

The older men in the UK actually dress very well. Some of their trousers are a bit too baggy for my taste, but nonetheless, they look like gentleman and usually wear classic shoes. With these gentleman, you still find that a round-toe is preferred, but it is a round-toe done with elegance, as would be an old Church's (pre-Prada) or a classic Crockett & Jones. It has a lot more shape to it, not just something that looks like a semi-circle at the toe.

--Younger Men

The younger men in England fall into two categories: those who wear winklepickers and those who enjoy a nice British chisel-toe. Now, you will find that the latter of those two is definitely the minority and most younger men are trotting around in their decent suits but with shoes that they found at Office or Kurt Geiger. This bunch reminds me of a more refined version of the younger American men generation, where as they dress nicer but still wear crappy shoes that make them look clueless. But, there are a growing few who seem to have been passed down that generation of style from their fathers, of whom appreciate something a bit more shaped and elegant. This is the bunch making Crockett & Jones rich, and in my opinion is directly related to the creation of one of the most amazing lasts to have been made, the 348. (see below right and top of post)

Crockett & Jones

Italy/France

I can't really break down these into the two categories of younger versus older, because I believe that in general, you find that men from these countries (whether young or old) tend to lean towards the same thing: elongated shoes. The toe-shape can actually be any design (square, chisel, round, pointy) so long as there is a good amount of space between the end of your long toe versus the end of your shoe. This is a trait that can either be extremely elegant or some cases, extremely offensive. However, you will find that many of the men tend to dress on the more elegant side, whereby they manage to put things together that you would not have dared thought of, but do so in a manner that it is actually impressive. Only on rare occasion do you find the the oddball wearing something so long, it looks as if he was about to go skiing.

Silvan Sassetti

Altan Bottier

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They Are Listening....And It Is About Time!!

I don't know if it is because of shoe designers like Mark McNairy and Grenson (of whom were amongst the first to come out with abnormal coloring in shoes) or because of my blog, and other ones like mine, but it would finally seem that the brands that may have once been seen as strictly conservative in their shoe making are now branching out and becoming a bit more eclectic! Never in a million years would I have thought to see Allen Edmonds making shoes in colors such as green, blue and red, and even more so using colored laces outside of black and brown. But this day has indeed come and it's quite refreshing to see. And the reason that this excites me, is because a company like Allen Edmonds, who has been making shoes for nearly 100 years and has quite an extensive and loyal customer base, also has the power to get men to think differently. So if more and more men who think that dress shoes should only be black or brown start to see their favorite brand release red shoes, blue shoes and green shoes, then it might just get them to realize that shoes can be fun, and don't have to be something that is simply necessary to complete ones outfit, but rather enhance ones outfit!

Just a reminder, if you are in London, fancy a chat or are interested in checking out Carmina's shoes, then I would suggest a quick pop over to the Rook & Raven (just north of Oxford st.) tomorrow from 11am-6pm.....hope to see some of you there!

Best,

Justin, "The Shoe Snob"

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What I Am Wearing - Black & Blue

I used to be the black & blue hater #1, and even to this day, I would prefer to never pair them together. But as I get older, the climate changes, my culture becomes something else (in my ever-moving journey), I really just can't be asked to rebel any further. Most of the time, I put them together due to the fear of ruining any of my nice non-black colored shoes, like my red's or suedes or whatever goes best with navy trousers. But the more and more that I spend in Europe, where I find myself outside 1000 more than I ever used to be (as cars don't make sense in city center here and thus commuting by foot takes over), the more and more that I find myself pairing these two colors and the more and more I find myself warming to the idea of black & blue. Strange how life is always playing tricks on you, how you hate something one day and then love it the next and vice-versa. It makes us all a bunch of hypocrites....or maybe just me. And even while I feel that it does create a classier look, I do believe that I will always prefer brown paired with navy, as something that just flows better.

Shoes: Allen Edmonds
Sweater (Jumper): Some brand from Naples, Italy
Shirt - Primark 
Tie - Gieves & Hawkes
Trousers - H&M

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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..... :-(

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What I Am Wearing

It's funny how you will always wish that you wore the opposite of what you have to. Most people who wear suits everyday probably wish that they could dress down a bit and yet I, who does dress down the majority of days, wish that I could wear suits more often. The reason being, is that I quite like the look of suit jacket-shirt-tie. The way that they fall together, to me, is just so beautiful yet very masculine. I also quite like putting on a light sweater (jumper) over a button-up shirt and tie (as shown above), but find myself getting quite bored with it, as of lately. Yet because it is cold, I can't use my waistcoats, and can't really dress any other way, as I have to wear a tie. To be honest, it would either be suits with bespoke shoes or jeans with trainers. This in-between dress/casual type of attire is getting to me!! But what can I do....buy more suits I guess and just hope that I don't get any polish on my trousers...

Shoes: Allen Edmonds 'Hampstead'
Sweater (jumper): Primark
Shirt: Primark
Knit Tie: Gieves & Hawkes
Trousers: H&M

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