The Belted Waist

Personally, I don't like belted trousers. They ride too low under a jacket for my taste and the buckle is distracting to the eye. But I did wear them as a young man, most men wear them today and some of those men have asked about them. So I have a few thoughts to share.

First, belts should complement your shoes. That means black calf shoes should be accompanied by a black calf belt. A man doesn't have to match his browns precisely, but when he wears brown shoes his belt should be brown. And I believe that if one is going to the trouble to wear burgundy or suede shoes, one should go to the trouble to wear a burgundy or suede belt.

That said, the most important thing I ever learned about belts was that the same people that make shoes offer them, in the same shades of leather as their shoes. You have to look - makers from Alden to Edward Green don't make much of their belt making. But the expedient way to have belts that complement your shoes is to buy them where you buy those shoes. Provided, that is, that you shop at factory stores. For some reason, many department stores don't seem to buy belts from the same places they get their shoes. But then, who would want pink alligator belts anyway?

Belts from their shoemakers will be all most men require in their lifetimes, but some always want more. And, in the case of belts, that leads inexorably to the skins of various reptiles, flightless birds, and certain denizens of the sea. Leathers from these creatures is turned into lovely straps in a plethora of colors by skilled artisans such as Hermes or San Francisco's April in Paris (source of the belt in the photo), and the straps themselves may be combined with buckles that cost as as if they were made from solid gold. Probably because some of them are.

I've never understood the fascination with alligator or crocodile belts, particularly since many of the men that wear them think shoes from the same material too flashy. Which of course, makes it more difficult to find shoes that complement that stingray creation around your waist. But, in a world where logos are the easy substitute for good taste, I don't call that a sin.

Casual Shoes Should be Brown

Most of the casual shoes I see are the same boring designs and the wrong color. Leather slip-ons, that is. The vast majority are black penny loafers of one sort or another, and how many black penny loafers should a man be forced to look at over the course of a lifetime?

In the first place, there aren't that many occasions when casual shoes are right. Around the house, of course. Maybe back and forth in the car for lunch. But most shoe professionals tell me that casual shoes are really not constructed for a day of walking or standing. And my feet agree.

That's quite a change from my youth. Raised on Weejuns, I doubt if I owned any laced shoes until years after I entered the work force. For dress I had cordovan leather Alden penny loafers and tassels, in brown and burgundy. I still wear the penny loafers perhaps a day a month. But 90% of my shoes are laced, and have been for years.


Driven by the need to slip shoes off and on at airport security, earlier this year I set out to find some not-penny-loafer styles that I could wear with odd jackets. I settled on two models from Edward Green. The first, an earlier version of the the Bamford pictured at the top of the essay, is a burnt pine slip-on with a toe medallion (the photo is from Sky Valet). The other, the Telford, is a butterfly model with some light brogueing (the photo is not actually a Telford but G. J. Cleverley's crossover band casuals.) I ordered mine in tan, from Tom at Leather Soul.

And that leads me back to the topic of casual shoe colors. It's my belief that casual shoes should usually be brown or burgundy. This stems from an interpretation of the old London rules that makes sense to me:

- Casual shoes are worn with odd jackets, or no jackets at all.
- Odd jackets are worn outside the city during the day, where and when brown shoes are worn.
- Hence, most casuals should be brown.

The exceptions to this way of thinking would be for entertaining at home in the evening (though that's a great time to wear slippers), or for the rare occasion when a more formal black casual is worn with a suit in the city. But the latter should usually be elastic sided slip-ons which are essentially laced shoes without laces.

Casual shoes should be brown. Add style points for suede.

Goodbye Old Boots

An argument against purchasing re-badged shoes was brought home to me last week when the strap on my old Peal buckle boots snapped.

You may know that Peal is a sadly defunct shoemaker whose name and lasts were acquired by Brooks Brothers when Peal stopped trading about forty years ago. The shoes are made by other makers and sold only in BroBroClo stores. The rub is that when they need re-making, you have to know who made them or you're out of luck. Brooks is no help as they seem principally intent on making customers believe they have their own factory busy sewing shoes somewhere in Northampton, and their shoes have only the Peal name on them.

One of the benefits of paying exorbitant sums for welted leather shoes is that they last practically forever as long as you don't do something awful to them. When they are sufficiently worn, you return them to the maker where they are re-soled, repaired and otherwise returned to as good as new condition for a price that's around half the cost of a new pair. And, if they are brown, they have the additional benefit of ten or twenty years of patina.

My boots had decades of patina but I tried tracking down the maker to no avail (I had another pair of old Peals re-made by C&J some years ago), and the cost of having them re-made by a third party is more than the cost of new boots. Fortunately, John Cusey of the Ask Andy About Clothes forum happened to call my attention to Leather Soul's Alden Cigar Shell Cordovans pictured to the left.

The advantage of cordovan for boots is that it's the least porous leather known, and that is a big plus in rain and snow. So I expect that these Aldens will provide more effective service than my old buckle boots. But, nice as they are, they wouldn't have been necessary had I originally bought boots that I could have had re-made.

Hawaii's Leather Soul

Thomas Park’s love of shoes began at the age of 5 when he was given his first pair of Nike Air Jordans and that love has never died - Thomas started his shoe retail business, Leather Soul, in Honolulu in 2004. His main goal was and still is to provide Hawaiian business and professional men with a comfortable store for their footwear needs. Today, two Honolulu locations offer a selection of leather shoes from Alden and Edward Green.

Alden shoes are the heart of Leather Soul's walk-in business. Recognized as the leading maker of shell cordovan shoes in the world, Alden is the only original New England-based survivor remaining out of the hundreds of American companies that were making shoes when the craft mechanized in the middle of the nineteenth century. Alden has prospered thanks to its focus on well-made welted shoes, which makes the line a good fit for Leather Soul's customers.

Leather Soul became of interest outside of Hawaii when Park expanded the company's offerings to include Edward Green's shoes in 2006. Green is one of a handful of the best ready to wear shoe makers in the world and Leather Soul is now one of only two U.S. outlets that I know to be actively promoting Green's made to order program (the sublime Ectons pictured to the left were a recent special order for a customer).

Once a man knows his size, Edward Green allows him to specify shoes from thousands of options, including the style, the last, the sole and the type and color of leather. Four to six months later, a shoe arrives that's exactly what he envisioned, at a fraction of the price of bespoke. It's an addictive experience, as a glance in my closet will demonstrate. It's also a necessity as a man's wardrobe expands since retailers carry at most half a dozen models of the best makes.

Successful made to order requires a dealer to be detail conscious and concerned that the customer knows his fit before accepting an order. Part of Edward Green's attraction is their willingness to re-make shoes in the relatively rare case where there is a misunderstanding, but the best way to avoid frustration is to get the order right in the first place. After all, it's hard enough to wait four months for shoes. If they have to be re-made, it becomes an eight month process.

That's why I like the structured form that Leather Soul uses for special orders. Everything is in writing in one place, unlike the email threads that have caused confusion on some of my orders with Edward Green in London and another retailer in the U.S. A $150 deposit is required, with the balance due when the shoes are ready for the customer.