Thoughts on the Shoe Business

Nobody's asked for my opinion, but I thought I'd share a couple thoughts on the high-end ready to wear shoe business.

As the world's become a smaller place, the remaining ready to wear shoemakers have seen their home turfs invaded by by makers from other parts of the world. England's Edward Green does the largest share of its business in Japan. France's Pierre Corthay is in New York's Bergdorf Goodman, and Hungary's Vass is out, at least for the time being.

The challenge each of these makers faces is that there aren't enough competent retailers to go around, and the ones that exist already have lines. A new stockist that can deliver volume comes around perhaps once every five years, so expansion becomes a zero sum game. For Gaziano Girling or W. S. Foster to get shelf space, another maker loses some of his. Yet none of these companies, or the dozen others that I haven't mentioned, has attempted an end run yet.

Foster Ready to Wear in London

What's an end run, you ask? Ecommerce. Expensive even five years ago, today it takes a lot less investment than opening dedicated retail stores a la John Lobb Paris. I can think of a few things that would make my customer experience much better than it is today.

First, invest in a set of fitting shoes for each major market. They should encompass every last, and every size in the product line, and if that's too expensive cut back the breadth of the line. A maker can't sell shoes until the customer knows what size he needs.

Pierre Corthay Ready To Wear in Paris

Once the fitting shoes are available, work out a method for dispatching a pair or two, secured by a credit card, when a new customer inquires. It's a process that works quite well for bespoke hats. In addition, or at the very least, begin trunk shoes in major cities and promote them so prospective customers can get fit and place their first order. Once they've bought the first time, personal interaction becomes less important.

Second, set up a web site that includes a visual of every model on every last, in every leather, and with every sole. Describe the differences between choices like Dainite and Ridgeway soles, for example, because there won't be a helpful sales professional available to your customers when they order. Take orders on the site. And go out of your way to over-communicate order status by email. Acknowledge the order, provide an expected delivery day, and then provide periodic updates during the months it takes to make the shoes. Once the software is working, email is free anyway.

Then put bar code scanners and digital cameras at a couple major stations on the production line so you can take work in process photos and send them to a database. Give each customer a login on the web site where they can see their shoes as they are being made, and keep a record, of course, of the shoes in each customer's inventory. The first company to do this will have customers posting pictures and praise on every clothing forum in cyberspace.

Since customers are freely providing their contact information, a maker going down this road has a free method to proactively communicate trunk show dates, new models, and other useful information that leads to ongoing relationships and repeat orders.

I submit that the first maker to adopt a system similar to this one will sell a lot more shoes because they'll be making life easier on me, and shoe loving customers around the world.

More "Underwear"

Conservatively dressed? Despite the dark brown suede shoes, only the lilac ground on the necktie might draw a second look. A man in a conservative profession would probably choose a solid navy necktie but his double bead striped jacket could still conceal the unexpected.

In this case, it was covering a pair of braces that by themselves are reason to keep one's jacket on at all times.

Changing Seasons

We've entered the final weeks of summer in the Northern hemisphere and our active wardrobes will change with the new season. Autumn's country clothing, like Spring's, takes its coloring cues from nature. Tweed jackets were woven to blend into the terrain during the stalking season in Scotland, and sweaters and corduroy trousers share that same palette.

Shetland sweaters, like these Jamieson's at Ben Silver, are one of the reasons that Fall is my favorite time of year. Wear them over a checked flannelette shirt.

Men with compatible coloring who haven't already taken advantage of rust and orange in their Fall wardrobes should trying adding an item or two to their closets. As the photos illustrate, either color will complement sky blue, bottle green, or mustard corduroys.

I've always enjoyed the way city clothes reflect the colors of man, while country clothes blend with nature. Autumn sends me to the country side of my closet.

Global Warming Comes to Your Suit

Marketing's inevitable adoption of global warming has begun this season. Suit makers that weave their own cloth, such as Scabal and Zegna, are emphasizing new fabrics that look wintry but make up into garments with the weight of summer suits. The photos are from Scabal's ready to wear collection.

Lighter weight cloth makes for a perfectly comfortable garment, as long as the wearer remains in a heated space. It's a trend that makes money for the mills, as they can make more cloth from less wool, and promotes sales of overcoats at the same time. Of course, the coats are also lighter, to the point that a man wearing one of the new suits with one of the overcoats might not want to spend too much time outdoors in Minneapolis, Montreal or Moscow.

Personally, I don't see any reason to own a Fall suit that weighs less than 11 ounces. Even that's a bit light for walking around Manhattan in mid-winter, and New York's weather is relatively mild. And, curmudgeon that I am, I think 13 ounce cloth provides the best combination of drape, temperature control and wrinkle resistance. But I don't buy for Nieman Marcus and what you see there is lighter weight.

The three button look is what was on the street in London and Paris this summer, and we can expect to continue to see it in the Fall. Scabal's version is better than much of what I saw - three buttons done wrong can easily look too boxy and this one doesn't have that problem.

But, global warming or not, I'd be concerned about the weight.

Photographs are Copyright © Scabal. All rights reserved.

Suits and Socks, Installment VII

Gray and tan houndstooth socks accompanied the "Underwear" ensemble posted yesterday. Acorn cap toe oxfords and a tan gabardine suit.

"Underwear"

Tan gabardine suit with a gray grenadine necktie and acorn punched cap oxfords. The shirt has white collar and cuffs and a gray body with black and white pencil stripes. And, obviously, maroon braces. Like shirts, braces were considered underwear during the years when a man never removed his jacket outside the privacy of his dressing room.

Quotation: The Look

"'Over his white shirt and perfect neckcloth, Brummel wore a pale or white waistcoat - or 'vest' in the parlance of the tailors of the period and in modern American usage. The waistcoat hid a small addition to a gentleman's wardrobe that is often forgotten in the annals of fashion history and Brummel's place in it: braces or suspenders. These are absent from the wardrobes of the previous generation ... Without them, the severe line along the thighs and lower legs was impossible, as belts were both inimical to the style and unflattering to the majority. Brummel wore breeches or pantaloons in the morning, in soft stocking-woven fabric or often soft leather, All this pale and white palette was thrown into sharp relief with two items in dark colors. A dark jacket - always deep blue - was cut away at the front to form tails, for ease on horseback but also to increase the apparent length of the wearer's legs. Black Hessian boots - from Hesse in Gemany - completed the ensemble. These were walking or riding boots with a tassel at the front that served to distinguish them from turn-top riding boots, which briefly had about them the taint of Napolean. The perfection of the cut and sculptural strength of the style were communicated with even greater clarity and strength by the sober palette."

- Beau Brummel, Ian Kelly

Another One Bites the Dust

I mentioned several weeks ago that I got black bean sauce on a new Sam Hober bespoke necktie a couple of hours into its first wearing. "No problem," thinks I, "Tiecrafters to the rescue!" Tiecrafters, if you don't already know, is a New York firm with a well deserved reputation as the necktie cleaner that doesn't actually ruin the necktie in the cleaning process. Having a single tie cleaned is a $21 proposition, including shipping both ways. And the cost is considerably less if you get them dirty in batches.

Well, if I didn't already know that nobody's perfect, I do now. Even Tiecrafters couldn't fix this one. The photo could be better but you can see the remains of a blotch in the center about five dots from the top, another left of center four dots below it, and an especially nasty one on the right side about four dots below that. It doesn't look too bad in the photo but it's not wearable in person.

So another necktie bites the dust. The remarkable thing is that it doesn't happen more often.

By the way, you can also call on Tiecrafters to do necktie shortening and narrowing. They will even make bow ties from your four in hands!

Sweaters to Travel For

I love Irish linen sweaters. Like alpaca, they make a garment that's warm when it's cool and cool when it's warm. Ralph Lauren's Purple Label has linen sweaters once in a while but generally they're not easy to find, and that's probably because the best source in the world is at the end of it.

Inis Meáin is the middle of three Aran Islands lying 15 miles off the west coast of Ireland, which makes it about as far West as you can go on land from Europe before you get to North America. It is just three miles across, with a unique landscape of terraced limestone and 200 inhabitants that make a living from farming, fishing and knitwear.

Ruairí de Blacam and his wife, Marie-Thérèse, started the Inis Meáin Knitting Company to earn a livelihood that would allow them to live on the island. The knitting company is by far the island's largest employer, and it makes high quality Irish influenced garments from alpaca, cashmere, Irish linen and merino wool. The first two pieces of theirs that I picked up were hip length linen sweater coats more than a decade ago. I wear them still.

To the best of my knowledge, the only places to buy the knitwear in the United States are Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, or online at Hartford York. But if you're looking for a worthwhile clothing-related adventure, visiting the island gets you to the factory store, which has a range of garments available at what are essentially wholesale prices. I guess their reseller channel doesn't worry about the handful of visitors they get each day during the summer.

The better way to get there is to go to Galway and hop one of the two-a-day ferries out of Ros a'Mhíl (Rossaveel). Or, Aer Arainn Islands operates a commercial air service that takes seven minutes each way. And I'd appreciate it if you'd pick up a couple things for me while you're there.

Unseasonably Cold

Shortly after reading about New York City's coldest August day, I was riding on the Avenues near San Francisco's Great Highway where I noticed people wearing heavy sweaters and parkas to keep warm. The weather made a reader's question about overcoats seem timely; he asked what might fall between the formality of a city coat, such as a polo or a covert, and an informal coat, like a Barbour or a shearling jacket. To me, that would be a country coat for wear over a jacket.

My own country coat is a light tweed topcoat with Raglan sleeves like the one worn by the man carrying the oar, above, but then I live in a place where the temperature might get down to freezing once every five years.

In colder climates the answer is something like the Ulster in the illustration above, made from 22 ounce or heavier (if it can be found) tweed. Brown or tan is the classic.

Gray or blue cloth makes for an in-between version that can be worn on informal occasions in the city.

Much as I like tweed, I'm not really ready for cold weather. Fortunately, in the Bay area, summer doesn't really begin until after Labor Day.

"Wanna Know if a Guy is Well Dressed?"

The late columnist George Frazier posed that question years ago and the answer, he said, was "Look down." But in business and the professions, a man's shoes are just the starting point. When one successful man is sized up by another, it's because there's been a positive first impression that warrants a further look. Their eyes start at the face, go down to the feet and sweep back to the face. And everything they see should pass muster.

I'm generalizing today about the professional who travels a lot to meet other professionals in his work. The kind of guy who buys four to six suits a year and would be uncomfortable or worse if someone said he looked like a dandy. The man whose clothing is intended to convey a sense of accomplishment without attracting attention to itself, because the last thing business clothing should do is get in the way of a transaction with another person.

If a well dressed professional is wearing a suit, it will usually be a two button notch lapel model that, if it's not bespoke, has been made to measure by a maker like Zegna or Oxxford; conservative in cut and color, fitted, and made of obviously high quality materials. His cream, blue and blue striped shirts are also made to measure because that's the only way he can be sure to show a half inch of linen at his collar and cuffs. He's usually wearing a pair of polished oxfords, and his necktie is quiet - in fact, his boldest gesture is probably a quarter inch of white linen in his breast pocket.

The guy in the illustration above fit the bill when men were flying in propellor-driven planes, and would be every bit as good today if he left the hat at home.

Suits and Socks, Installment VI

Striped socks, bluchers and a tan nailhead suit. Above the waist, a yellow necktie, orange barathea braces, a blue and white glen check shirt with a club collar worn pinned and a white linen pocket square.

Reader Questions

From Michael
"I'm visiting New York and wondering what fabric stores you would recommend for suitings. I'm looking to spend no more than $100 per yard."

Brooklyn's Tip Top Super Fine Fabrics buys end bolts from good houses and you can usually find suiting lengths of excellent goods less than $50 a yard. It's well worth the journey.


From John
"I enjoy quality clothes but do not always know how to find what I want. I recently saw a khaki/brown prince of wales sports jacket on someone and would like to purchase one. Ralph Lauren and Paul Stuart (my two favorites) do not have it this season nor do they have it in their swatch books. It seems like such a simple pattern (khaki and darker brown check) - where can I go to get one made?"

The principal challenge you face in getting your jacket is finding a fabric that's like the one you saw.

Minnis has this wonderful 13 ounce flannel glen check for Fall.


They have summer versions too. This one is an eight ounce cloth.

Whoever you choose to make the coat should also have fabrics for you to look at. I haven't used them but many New Yorkers seem to like Ercole in Brooklyn or Mr. Ned for mid-range tailoring.


From Rick
"I have my own law practice in the high tech area and have several clients in the Bay area that dress very casually. I, on the other hand, have always loved fine clothing.

I live in Colorado, so most of the folks I run into are wearing shorts, fleece, and Crocs. I could do that, and never look any different from the crowd. But that is just not who I am or who I represent. But it would look equally ridiculous for me to don a suit and tie every day that I sit in my office or when I travel to visit my clients. What would be an in-between look?"

Let me suggest that you could dress like a venture capitalist and your clients would be fine with that. That would mean "Friday" suits worn with a light sweater instead of a necktie and/or odd jackets with polos and dress trousers, like Luciano Barbera in the photo above. You can wear great shoes without raising any eyebrows.

Take a look around your local Oxxford or Zegna made to measure source. Zegna, for example, is reasonably priced, stylish, and the delivery time is under six weeks. Many Valley executives wear it.

Then acquire a couple pair of Vass, Edward Green, John Lobb or comparable shoes. And get some high quality mock turtlenecks to wear with your jackets. I'll bet you like the look.

Book Review: The London Cut

London's Savile Row has been the home of some of the world’s best, or at least best known, tailors for more than 200 years. And for most of the first 199 of those years, anything that smacked of marketing was frowned upon. Times change, and an association of Savile Row firms has sponsored the first book to cover the Row in more than two decades.

The London Cut, edited by James Sherwood, borrows its title from the name given to Frederick Scholte's drape cut in the 1930's. It uses conversations with the tailors and an excellent selection of images past and present to paint a picture of today's Savile Row in a series of essays about individual firms.

Since more than a few of those firms have websites, some readers are likely to be familiar with the histories of established names such as Poole, H. Huntsman and Anderson & Sheppard. The book's value added is that it extends coverage to two dozen less known tailoring houses ranging from the well established Welsh & Jeffries to moderns like Spencer Hart and Ozwald Boateng, and gives space to half a dozen accessory firms and several of the cloth houses and mills as well.

That said, I was probably happiest with the 59 page section of photos, many in color, of famous clients.

The London Cut is currently available from Amazon UK and is scheduled be released in the United States on January 29, 2008.

Car Watching Clothes

Yesterday's post about the Concours d’Elegance triggered an email exchange with a reader who mentioned wearing raspberry linen trousers with his white summer dinner jacket, and I was contrasting that preppy vignette with my mental picture of how most of the attendees at the Concours will be dressed. Not that shorts, sandals and a tee shirt aren't practical (though they will be very impractical at Pebble Beach if the fog comes in), but they are definitely light in the elegance department.

Which brought my mind to this Leslie Saalburg illustration that's about as elegant as a man sitting on sand can be on a summer's day. I think Bentley (one of the Concours partners) should strike a blow for elegance and give an ensemble like this to every Continental GTC purchaser. I know some Bentley buyers could use it because I saw a guy wearing a really bad pair of jeans pumping gas into his GTC last week. As the saying goes, there oughta be a law.

Have a great weekend.

Lifestyle: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

Perhaps the quintessential San Francisco Bay area event begins today. The 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is the world’s premier celebration of the automobile. 175 rare collectible automobiles will be displayed by invitation on the eighteenth fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links this weekend, and 10,000 car lovers will crowd to see them.

Last year's Best of Show winner was this 1931 Daimler Double-Six 50 Corsica Drophead Coupe.


This 1929 Rolls Royce Derby Phaeton is the kind of sight that people in the area will enjoy as about 100 of the 175 participants tour Highway 1 and Seventeen Mile Drive today.



Also on display will be this unrestored 1950 Ferrari 166MM Touring Barchetta that was found hidden under carpets in an Arizona backyard. Number 20 of 25 Ferrari 166MM Barchettas with 2-liter V12 engines ever built, it is the oldest known Ferrari to be left in its unrestored state.

Dress will be California tuxedos for the exhibitors (blazers and khakis), and polos, shorts and flip flops for the gallery.

Photos are Copyright © 2006 and 2007 by Ron Kimball Studios. Used by permission of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. All rights reserved.

Choosing the Day's Clothes

Hardy Amies, perhaps the first men's clothing designer and the man who had more influence on my dress than any other, wrote that a man should select his clothes with care so he can forget about them for the rest of the day.

Choosing the day's clothes starts with the suit rotation. Suits are not meant to be worn on consecutive days, and one way to ensure that is to rotate them in the closet. I hang recently worn clothing on the right of one closet bar, and take clothes that I'm going to wear from the left side. Moving them along the bar isn't much of a job - I have quite a few suits but there are no more than a dozen in my active city rotation at any particular time.

I start my selection by considering the formality of the day I expect to have. If it's got at least one serious event, I'll choose the first serious suit at the left hand side of the bar. Or, if it promises to be less formal, I'll pull a Friday suit that's less somber.

Next, I choose my shoes. I won't wear a pair that I've worn already that week, and I relate the formality of the shoe to the formality of the suit. That usually means oxfords with worsteds and bluchers or monks with flannels, linen and tweed.

The time-consuming part of the process is choosing a shirt, necktie and accessories. First comes the shirt. I usually choose light blue, yellow or light gray with a blue suit, or pink, cream or blue with a gray one. I don't have to worry too much about rotation as the laundry makes sure I can't wear any single shirt two weeks in a row.

The necktie comes next (I won't spend space on choosing a necktie since I covered that topic earlier this year). Then I choose a pocket square. That's usually white linen if I'm wearing a silk necktie. If I'm wearing a knit or a grenadine it's likely to be colored silk , in a secondary color that relates to my shirt or a color in my suit. Before going any further, I double-check the combination by putting the square in the jacket's breast pocket, holding the shirt and tie up to the jacket and making adjustments until I get a combination that I'm happy with. Sometimes that happens the first time, and once in a while it takes half a dozen tries.

With shirt, tie and square locked in, I go on to select socks that are compatible with my trousers but pick up the color of something I'm wearing above the waist. Finally, I'll choose braces and cufflinks that relate without matching in one way or another, and I'm done. Elapsed time, ten to twenty minutes to combine three (sometimes four) patterns, including socks, and at least that many colors.

Shining Shannons

It's been cold and foggy this past week and that's enough to bring out a pair of dress boots for a shoe shine. These are dark oak Edward Green Shannons on the 606 last, from Leather Soul.

Half boots look just like shoes under trousers but the extra height of the boot top keeps the ankles warm and dry.

Before polishing, they are a bit dull.

But they gleam once Noah of A Shine & Co finishes working his magic on them.

Suits and Socks, Installment V

Another look that works in a cafe but wouldn't be appropriate in most law firms (the best combinations for law firms are too dark to photograph well). Chestnut monks, navy worsted and a peek of startling orange socks that complement a pair of orange barathea braces above the waist.

Reader Questions

From James

"I just bought a pair of very, very nice suede Italian slip ons and wonder whether it will be ok to wear them with a suit in September. I will be in Florida. Also do you know where i can order a couple of pairs of authentic silk socks?"

You couldn't choose a better venue for your shoes than Florida in September. Even HRH the Prince of Wales has been known to wear slip-ons with a suit in summer, and September means you can safely ignore those who claim that you should only wear suede this season or that, or who think that different colors are more appropriate in summer. It's all good.

I can't recommend silk socks for day wear as they tend to fall down unless you're wearing sock suspenders. High quality cotton is better, and there's a wider variety of patterns available. But if you must have silk, CustomShirt1 and Woods of Shropshire both carry a couple choices in high quality silk Pantherella socks.

From Krishan

"Thank you for the interesting and educational articles, and for the time you've taken to assemble the Visiting Artisans Calendar.

I was thinking of making some appointments with Huntsman and/or Anderson & Sheppard for their upcoming visits but am new to the bespoke process.

And for shoes it is between GJ Cleverley and Foster & Sons.

I am sure they are all very good, I was just wondering if you might have some tips and suggestions beyond those in your posts.

Plus I was hoping to get your thought on the production timeframes, what to expect from each producer, etc..."

The shoe part of your question is relatively easy. For bespoke shoes you're typically measured on the first visit, and fit on the second. The shoes are completed and shipped to you, and the maker has you wear them for a while. You bring them in to have them looked at on the third visit, and if all has gone well the maker will take another order from you at that point if you're so inclined.

Each shoemaker will provide any of the classic styles, but if you have your heart set on something unique to one of them you should get it from that maker as the others will be reluctant to copy it. Cleverley and Foster are both very high quality and, unless you get to London periodically and can continue the process there at your convenience, an important criteria should be the regularity of their visits. One that visits semi-annually is going to require nine months to a year for the initial delivery and as much as 18 months before signing off on the first pair.

Before choosing a tailor, you need to choose a silhouette. The two you've mentioned produce clothes that are about as different from each other as you can get on the Row. A&S makes a relatively unstructured jacket (the suits that I'm wearing on my web site are from A&S) that's popular with American customers. Huntsman, on the other hand, makes a very structured coat. You may also want to consider Poole, whose style is a bit more flexible than the other two and whose jackets fall somewhere in the middle. All three are good, but you should first decide what you think you want to look like and let that drive your choice.

If you don't get to London with any frequency, once you choose your silhouette (and that may require you to visit each of the candidates this time around before you make a selection), your next criteria should be the frequency of their visits. Your first suit will usually take one visit for measurement and two for fittings (usually only one fitting is required after the first suit, but sometimes it takes more).

A tailor like A&S who visits once a year is going to take longer to deliver completed suits unless you can meet them in another city during the year. I prefer men who visit two or three times, and I get to London for intermediate fittings in addition. The more frequency the better, in my opinion.

Fall Cottons

Beazley's package of Holland & Sherry cottons arrived today. Clockwise, from the top:

• Moss 9 oz 16 wale needlecord
• Fawn 14 oz 11 wale cord
• Navy 16 oz 7 wale cord
• Rust (dark red, really) 14 oz moleskin

As soon as Martin Greenfield's shop re-opens after their Summer vacation, the cloth will be made into high waisted pleated trousers for Fall, with side adjustors and 1 3/4" cuffs. I hope to have them about the time the temperature is cool enough to wear them. They'll be paired with sweaters, tweed jackets, half boots and Norwegian lace-ups.

Best Dressed?

The September issue of Vanity Fair magazine weighs in with the 68th annual version of the International Best-Dressed List. As usual, it's a melange of well-dressed women (I like Charlotte Gainsbourg), publicity hungry celebs, and men that make you wonder who is selecting these people.

I mean, Count Manfredi Della Gherardesca looks fine and Gay Talese belongs but some of the men are wearing clothes that look like they came straight off the rack. Though that's a mere bagatelle next to Lapo Elkann's attention-seeking approach to dress.

In a way, it's surprising that the list isn't exclusively comprised of politicians, models and actors. If you think about it, they are about the only people that have a professional incentive to study themselves in order to fine-tune every aspect of their appearance, and hours of video they can watch in order to do so. Unfortunately, too many of them take the Elkann/Johnny Depp approach of wearing something calculated to attract as much publicity as possible.

In an era where there are few rules about situationally appropriate clothing, the criteria for best dressed are becoming schizophrenic. On the one hand there is classic style, where the ideal is the quiet blend that turns no heads. On the other are the costumes designed to generate attention. Give me a List of one or the other, but I don't think it's rational to include both.

Cifonelli Style

One thing that struck me during my visit to Cifonelli in Paris last month was that the work rooms were full of conservative suits in process but the showroom models were beautifully detailed odd jackets rather than suits. I neglected to ask why this was so, but I'll guess it's to demonstrate that the firm can execute more than navy blue double breasteds.

For example, the pictured jacket is a modern version of a hunting coat in lightweight tweed with a half lining. The four button front can be closed completely to keep out the wind and there's leather under the collar and at the ends of the sleeves because both are meant to be turned up.

The coat is impeccably finished, with a yoke across the back, beautifully buffed seams and a zippered ticket pocket.

The blue jacket is another lightweight, unvented coat. This one has a one button front with buttoning patch pockets. It's perhaps a little too aggressively styled for my taste, but it wouldn't be at all out of place in Paris.


The inside of the half lined blue jacket shows the attention to detail that was evident in everything I saw.

When you are next in Paris, make the trip to Rue Marbeuf. Go through the unmarked doors to the left of Cifonelli's street level retail shop and up the stairs to the second floor fitting room. As Le Guide Michelin would say, it's worth the journey.

Would You Like Shoes With That?

This photo was taken unexpectedly by our friend Constance at an early dinner with her husband Gaël and her children last week in San Francisco.

Constance is the men's shoe buyer for Sarenza, a French language shoe shopping web site that offers selected models by a variety of makers including some, like Pierre Corthay and Santoni, that are difficult to find online. There is currently a sale with models such as Corthay's Arca discounted from 850,00 € ($1,170) to 595,00 € ($819) including VAT. If, as they should, the site deducts VAT for U. S. buyers the Corthays would be very well priced at roughly $656.

W S Foster & Son, Bespoke Shoemakers

At London's 83 Jermyn Street, the home of shoemaker W S Foster and Son and its sister company, bootmaker Henry Maxwell, the last of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts sits not far from those of former customers Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, Fred Astaire and Clark Gable.

Terry Moore, by repute the best lastmaker in England, supervises the making of Foster's shoes and boots and has personally trained the rest of the five person bespoke team. Moore began his career with Peal and Co., in its time perhaps London's most famous boot and shoemakers, moving to Foster after that venerable firm shut its doors in 1965.

The Foster shape is a soft chisel toe with a lovely waist. Other than the uppers, which are sewn by machine, the bespoke shoes are made entirely by hand. I was especially taken by the pictured cap toes with gray suede uppers - if I can get fitted in this lifetime I think that will be the model Foster shoe that I choose. They have the look of button boots but I'd be inclined to wear them much more often than I would the boots.


Foster showed me several other unique bespoke samples, such as the Thomas model second from the left, that are relatively well priced at £1,400 ex VAT (about $2,800). MD Sarah Adlam and a lastmaker have begun accompanying shirtmaker Harvie & Hudson on semi-annual visits to the United States. The next trip will be in October - watch the Visiting Artisans Calendar for a schedule.

Reader Questions

From Richard
"I have been invited to a wedding which states "black tie." I don't have a dinner jacket but I have two options:

1. A vintage Kilgour burgundy smoking jacket which I would wear as a substitute for a dinner jacket

2. A single breasted peak lapel lounge suit (also Kilgour) which I would wear with a white shirt and houndstooth black and white tie (typically de rigueur at English weddings)

Any thoughts on preferred options? I am tending towards option 2 only because I think a smoking jacket might be too much."

If the wedding is in the evening, as it should be with the stated dress, I think your instincts are correct. A smoking jacket is to be worn at home, at your club, and, if you're young enough, maybe at a dance club with a pair of jeans. I'd call and get the host's opinion about how firmly they would like to hold you to black tie (your third option is to rent some) and if they are OK with it, wear the suit.

From Jim

"I live in Louisville Ky. And while our winters are mild, there are a few cold days. I need to replace some of my trousers. My question is can I wear a tropical wool weight trousers or should I purchase them in gabardine? I work in your typical business casual environment so my daily wear is a pair of trousers and a dress shirt. I believe the material is the same weight just different finish."

You don't have to choose. Gabardine is woven in weights as heavy as twelve ounces and as light as eight, which is the same as other tropical wools. I recommend you look for something in the middle. Ten ounce cloth, which is mid-weight, will be wearable in Louisville on all but the warmest days, and will serve you better when it's cool. It will feel heavier to your hand than tropical but not as heavy as a winter weight suit.

The Dandy

Eyeing his friend's exquisite European clothes, he (Scott Fitzgerald) asked, "Are you what they call a fop?" (Scott's own sartorial expression was more in the Arrow Collar-ad mode). No, Gerald told him. As he later explained it, "I was a dandy, which is something entirely different. . . . I liked clothes that were smart, without having any interest in fashions or styles, and I dressed just the way I wanted to, always."

- Amanda Vail, Everybody Was So Young

White Shirts and Sun Tans

They are fine in the evening but I'm not usually one for white dress shirts for day wear. That's partly because I agree with Hardy Amies, who wrote that they are a bit naff compared to blue or cream, and partly because they seem to wash all the color from my face. But there's one exception, and that's when I have a sun tan.

A tan seems to bring out the best in a white shirt, which is a good thing as white seems to coordinate especially well with the lighter colored suits of summer. Not to mention my favorite summer necktie (pictured), a blue so light that it loses its impact on anything but a white background. Time to order white linen from my shirtmaker.

Cotton Kills

Innovation in clothing has long been driven by sport, and a look at today's sport clothing offers some hints of what people will be wearing more of during the coming decades.

Companies such as Patagonia and REI have been driving the use of new materials in active sports such as hiking, climbing, biking and fishing for the past twenty years. When temperatures rise or activity-levels increase, technical clothing made from man-made materials is designed to improve comfort by letting sweat and body heat escape. The same types of technical clothing are also making inroads for travel as they tend to resist wrinkling and dry quickly, so they can be washed in a sink and hung dry by the next morning.

Technical clothing is designed for dressing in several lightweight clothing layers instead of one or two heavier layers. Layered clothing systems let the wearer add or remove layers in response to changing conditions (they also tend to pack more efficiently than heavier clothing). Most systems have four basic layers: inner, mid, insulation and outer. Each type performs a specific task.

Inner layer clothing is worn next to the skin. Its job is to keep the wearer comfortable by wicking sweat from the skin and providing insulation. Wicking keeps the wearer dry and comfortable in warm conditions and retains warmth in cold weather by reducing evaporative and conductive heat loss. Inner layer clothing is available in a variety of thicknesses for different activities and weather conditions.

Cotton is not recommended as an inner layer for active wear. It's comfortable when it's dry, but it absorbs sweat and holds it next to the skin (which can lead to significant heat loss). Cotton also takes a long time to dry, which can cause discomfort and even death when it freezes (hence the phrase "cotton kills" used to warn hikers in mountainous terrain). Cotton-like materials with hollow synthetic fibers made from laminated polyester or nylon such as MTS 2® (Moisture Transport System) or Capilene® (used by NASA) are better.

The primary function of mid-layer clothing is to provide insulation and protection in warm conditions. Mid layer items are often worn alone on short trips in good weather conditions. Pile and fleece mid layer garments are available today in shirts, pants, vests, jackets, pullovers and sweaters with wind and weather-stopping liners built in. And pile weighs about half as much as wool.

Insulation layer clothing is designed specifically to provide additional warmth. It's typically worn whenever mid and/or inner layer pieces are not warm enough for the conditions. Insulation layers, also often made of pile and/or fleece, are designed to be warm, lightweight, breathable and without bulk.

Finally, the primary job of outer layer clothing is to protect the wearer from wind, rain and snow. Outer layer items are ideally designed to create a "chimney effect" where built-in venilation such as zippered necks, high collars, open cuffs and vents allow hot air to rise and moisture to evaporate. Breathable waterproof fabrics like Gore-Tex® are comfortable in a wide variety of situations and conditions.

So what does all this mean to every-day dress? It's become common to see technical clothing mixed into every day wardrobes. The New Zealand native sitting next to me on the airplane yesterday was wearing it from his shirts to his shoes. As suits are replaced by what Anne Hollander predicted will be shirt, trousers and a bomber jacket, more of what people wear will be endowed with technical advantages that were first applied to sport. It's adoption will be speeded as suppliers complement their offerings of brightly colored stuff designed for visibility on the face of a mountain with more conventional looking clothes.

Which is Bespoke?

One of the shoes above is a bespoke Corthay and the other is RTW from the same maker. Which is which? The point of the photo is that the differences between quality RTW and bespoke shoes are subtle unless you're so close that you probably are wearing the shoes. And then, of course, you'd already know the answer.

Corthay probably competes principally with Aubercy for Parisian customers who seek quality. Both make high quality and sometimes attention-getting shoes. Aubercy is a larger company but, to me, Corthay has more soul. His bespoke business is just three pair each week. The bespoke shoes are made in a small workroom next to the showroom.

Pierre Corthay created his signature shape in 1992, and began venturing into adventurous colors at the request of his bespoke customers. Despite all the attention that the colored shoes receive, 90% of his sales remain black and brown.

Oh yes, the brown shoes in the top photo are the bespoke pair.