Show us your SHOES !!!

[Isshinryu101]

my home crafted toeguards & bootstraps ect (made from hand shaped & polished stainless steel)
......

and yes , I do wear them :

VERY COOL!!!! Nice work on them, and Kudos for rocking them so well.

 

[Isshinryu101]

Church's desert boots:

You can't help but to love the classics, Shooey! Glad to see you posting here again.

 

[The Shooman]

Thanks Isshinryu101, good to see you posting here too. l love all your shoos, so fat and awesome *wink* .

Yeah, can't go wrong with the classics. l am surprised how most people prefer the trendy stuff and hate the old classics, so silly. l was in the shop and all these blokes were buying silly trendy sneakers instead of buying all the stuff that we like, l nearly said to some of the kids `hey...why don't you buy good leather shoos instead'?

 

[The Shooman]

Buying shoos is always awesome. l never get sick of buying them. Pity l didn't have thousands of pairs.

 

[thunderw21]

Thanks Isshinryu101, good to see you posting here too. l love all your shoos, so fat and awesome *wink* .

Yeah, can't go wrong with the classics. l am surprised how most people prefer the trendy stuff and hate the old classics, so silly. l was in the shop and all these blokes were buying silly trendy sneakers instead of buying all the stuff that we like, l nearly said to some of the kids `hey...why don't you buy good leather shoos instead'?

That's alright, leaves more of the good stuff for us.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.
Vintage shoe enthusiasts go through phases. We get stuck on a category and look for variations on that theme.

For a while, I've been on a vintage grained cap-toe bal oxford phase. Very specific, I know. Here are the results; all that's missing is oxblood.

The hardest part has been finding 27-inch, narrow flat laces that are waxed. Still haven't located any in British tan. (Waxed laces are water-repellent, and are in keeping with the rugged 'field' character of grained leather shoes ... while flat laces emphasize the dressy character of bal oxfords. Waxed flat laces are the best of both worlds.)


British tan:

Mahogany:

Black:

 

[SteveAS]

Very nice, Marc! With the white thread around the top perimeter of the soles, the tans ones are particularly interesting.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

With the white thread around the top perimeter of the soles, ...

Actually, the thread is beige, almost light yellow. That thread detail was very common on men's shoes --both dressy and casual-- from the early 1900s to the early '60s. When new, the threads have a layer of wax which helps to preserve their color when the shoes are polished.


With time, however, the wax dissipates, and the thread's light color ends up being darkened via polishing. (If the shoes are brown, the thread turns brown; if the shoes are black, well ... you get the picture.)

 

[Isshinryu101]

.
Vintage shoe enthusiasts go through phases. We get stuck on a category and look for variations on that theme.

For a while, I've been on a vintage grained cap-toe bal oxford phase. Very specific, I know. Here are the results; all that's missing is oxblood.

The hardest part has been finding 27-inch, narrow flat laces that are waxed. Still haven't located any in British tan. (Waxed laces are water-repellent, and are in keeping with the rugged 'field' character of grained leather shoes ... while flat laces emphasize the dressy character of bal oxfords. Waxed flat laces are the best of both worlds.)


British tan:

Mahogany:

Black:

Nice, Marc! I have a similar pair to those Black Crosby Squares by Wright Arch Preservers. Complete with that 40's sole I'm getting addicted to. My newest problem is owning TOO MANY pairs of shoes. I had a self-imposed 30 pairs rule, but broke that and now have gone over 50. I want to keep them all, but it's hard to differentiate between the ones I "collect" and the ones I WEAR.

I was ready to sell those Black pebbble Cap Oxfords, since I've got some black Thom McAn Spade sole Cap Oxfords. Figured they were pretty similar... but now you've given me second thoughts!!! UGH!!!!

BTW, I'm stopping by the cobbler's today... finally!

What the heck's a Vintage Shoe Collector to do?

 

[cookie]

Marc a guy on StyleForum was having flat waxed laces made up (in PRC I suspect). I bought some. He had a lot of different colours. I will get you details. They are the width in the top picture from observing them.
C

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Marc a guy on StyleForum was having flat waxed laces made up (in PRC I suspect). I bought some. He had a lot of different colours. I will get you details. They are the width in the top picture from observing them.
C

Thanks so much, Cookie! As you can see from the grained shoe photos, I managed to find one pair of laces in dark brown and one pair of laces in black. I really need a pair in British tan. I'd like for them to be 27 inches long (30 inches max) and narrowish, as are the brown and black pairs below:

 

[cookie]

I just looked and found him and sent him a PM . He seems to be out of tan and black. Though I think he may have navy blue! Try this link as well. http://www.shoelacesexpress.com/waxeddress.asp

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I just looked and found him and sent him a PM .

Thanks!

He seems to be out of tan ...

Curses!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.
BTW ... while I like to wear suede shoes with tweeds and thick flannels, I'm sadly aware that suede and rain/puddle water don't make a good cocktail. When wet weather strikes, I'm happier in tweeds and flannels with hardy grained leather oxfords. Can anyone relate?

 

[Tomasso]

Can anyone relate?

Yes, even though many cobblers have told me that suede does not deserve its fragile reputation I still don't feel right about wearing them out into a driving rain. Yet I have no qualms about subjecting them to snow, for some reason.

 

[jamespowers]

.
BTW ... while I like to wear suede shoes with tweeds and thick flannels, I'm sadly aware that suede and rain/puddle water don't make a good cocktail. When wet weather strikes, I'm happier in tweeds and flannels with hardy grained leather oxfords. Can anyone relate?

Aren't you supposed to stop wearing suede after labor day?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Aren't you supposed to stop wearing suede after labor day?

For shoes, you can wear dark tan, taupe, olive, rust, burgundy, brown, grey, blue, and black suede after Labor Day. Not white or cream suede or nubuck, though.


(Incredible to think that, in the 1930s, men's suede shoes were made in all of those colors.)

 

[jamespowers]

For shoes, you can wear tan, olive, rust, brown, grey, blue, and black suede after Labor Day. Not white or cream suede or nubuck, though.

I was being facetious.
I wear all those shades of white all year long here. Not in the rain though. It would make sense not to wear anything you could get dirty in the rain---suede would fit that bill.
It would seem more natural to wear oxfords with tweeds and flannels more than suede.[huh]

 

[Tomasso]

Suede oxfords were considered country wear before the Duke of Windsor brought them to the city.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

It would seem more natural to wear oxfords with tweeds and flannels more than suede.[huh]

We can think that horse's posterior, the Duke of Windsor, for it. Around 1920, he wore suede oxfords with flannel suits on a tour through Canada and the United States. Of course, everyone had to mimic it after that.