It feels ridiculous to call a pair of ~$1,500 shoes high-value, but Saint Crispin’s really do feel like some of the best deals around. For about the price of high-end ready-to-wear, you not only get a pair of handwelted shoes with a lot of the shaping you’d find in bespoke, you also get a world of customization options. So many, in fact, that you can spend nearly an hour mulling over an order. Or at least that’s how long I spent yesterday at The Wingtip, as Phillip Car is in San Francisco this week holding a two-day trunk show. 

Technically speaking, Saint Crispin’s has five levels to their customization program, but you can somewhat group them into three (for all five, you can visit their website). The first level is your standard made-to-order, where you can get any of their mainline models in a variety of leathers, colors, and sole types. There are also small details, such as sole monograms and toe plates. Somewhat standard stuff, although Saint Crispin’s is one of the few companies who offers a wide range of crust leathers (a type of unfinished leather that’s handstained at the company’s Romanian workshop). With handstained leathers, you can ask for even subtler variations in color that you might not be able to achieve with finished materials. 

There’s also the possibility of getting last adjustments, in case their standard lasts don’t fit you properly. Here, small pieces of cork are either added to the last before the shoes go into production, or pieces of the lasts are rasped away. You can see part of the process in the video at the end of this post. It’s an ingenious solution for people who like Saint Crispin’s shoes, but just need to get a better fit. Phillip tells me that, along with getting a better fit, customers can even ask for complete changes to the toe shapes. Useful if you, like me, want a slightly rounder toe for more casual styles. 

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I had a nice chat with Patrick Johnson and one of his sales reps, Remy Ghougassian, a few weeks ago. The two were in San Francisco fitting customers, so we met after hours at the St. Regis hotel to chat over drinks. Since they just moved to New York City, I asked if they’ve found any cultural differences between the US and their home country, Australia. “I think there are some,” said Remy. “Australians tend to be more informal, even in professional settings. You can meet someone for the first time and they’ll treat you like an old friend.” 

Perhaps that’s the best way to describe P. Johnson’s tailoring – casual, informal, and utterly unpretentious. Their company specializes in a trimmer, sportier take on traditional tailoring, although they don’t go as trendy as some fashion-forward lines. Patrick noted that, while they can obviously make anything a client wants, he prefers slightly more traditional lengths. “Short jackets often accentuate the hips, which is rarely a good look for men,” he said. So while their suits and sport coats fit slim, the jackets are still long enough to cover the wearer’s rear. 

What really defines their tailoring, however, is the construction method. P. Johnson is a made-to-measure customer clothier, using adjusted, computer-generated patterns that they produce in-house (in Australia, although the tailoring itself is done in Italy). This allows them to offer a better value to those who aren’t interested in bespoke. And while they allow clients to choose from a variety of styling details, their default house style is very soft. So soft, in fact, that even their most structured suits are about what you’d typically find in Naples – everything else is only softer. 

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Suit jackets and sport coats aren’t the only things that come unstructured. For the miserably hot days we’ve been having lately, I’ve been enjoying my unlined shoes. Soft and slipper-like, they feel a little more comfortable and carefree when temperatures climb past the mid-eighties – even if you’re still sweating like a pig. 

To explain, most leather shoes come with a full leather sock liner built-in. That means two pieces of leather are joined to form the uppers – there’s the leather that faces the outside world, and the leather that touches your feet. By joining these two pieces together, you get something that’s a bit more structured and will hold its shape better. Without the lining, however, you get a softer, more comfortable shoe. Whereas most leather footwear needs a break-in period, unlined shoes feel like slippers on first wear. 

My favorite unlined shoes come from Alden. They have three main models: a chukka, a loafer, and a blucher. Like with neckties, when a company describes their footwear as unlined, they usually mean they’re lightly- or partially-lined. Alden’s loafers are lined at the back half of the shoe and at the toe – leaving only the vamp and front sides unlined. This gives their loafers an appreciable softness when worn, but they’re not nearly as soft as the company’s chukkas, which are almost completely unstructured. 

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I love classic tailored clothing and heritage brands such as Barbour, but I also enjoy seeing all the new brands that come up in casualwear. Patrick Grant once said the great thing about fashion is that it’s an “ever-moving feast” with new companies and styles coming and going all the time. Last year, I wrote about six new(ish) companies that I’ve been watching – brands such as Ten C, Frank Leder, and Dana Lee (who I still think are doing great things). Here’s an update with seven more. Like with the previous year’s list, maybe you’ll find something to like here as well. 

 

 

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My friend Agyesh is one of the most talented guys I know. A Parsons graduate and former product developer at Isaia, he struck out on his own a few years ago to start his own design company. Named Stoffa, which is Italian for “the stuff things are made of,” the label started with a handsome range of accessories – from slow loomed scarves to modern looking pocket squares to unique knit ties. Everything from the company feels refreshingly new and modern, even though they’re still using century-old production techniques. Their scarves, for example, are woven on old, wooden, jacquard shuttle looms in Biella, Italy. Since they’re made to size, rather than cut from larger pieces of fabric, they’re finished with a selvedge edge. 

Yesterday, Stoffa introduced their first cut and sew pieces, which Agyesh has been developing and product testing for the last two years. Included are three models for leather jackets – an asymmetrical zip with big sweeping lapels; a flight jacket with oversized pockets; and a longer field jacket designed to be worn over tailored sport coats and chunky sweaters. Tons of unique details abound, such d-ring side tabs to help cinch in the waist and stand up collars to add a bit of panache. There’s also a new line of trousers, which are made with a slim leg line and higher rise (a combination that’s frustratingly hard to find). 

Everything is custom made, which means you can choose from a range of lambskins, suedes, and brushed cottons for the jackets, and a nice full line of peached cottons for the trousers. Prices range from $700 to $1,700 for outerwear (depending on the material and model) and $250 to $300 for pants. Since everything is made-to-measure, however, it does mean that purchases have to be made at one of Stoffa’s trunk shows. “I’m very focused right now on getting things right for customers,” says Agyesh. “That means taking people’s measurements in person and helping them figure out which model is best for them.” 

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I had a project last year where I wanted to re-line a black leather jacket with an old piece of Japanese boro – a term used for heavily repaired, indigo-dyed peasant fabric that comes out of the island’s countryside. The project hasn’t gone so well. Although I found my boro (it was bought at Shibui), I haven’t found the right jacket. The original plan was to get a cafe racer from an old season by Junya Watanabe, but after ordering one direct from Japan, it was lost in the mail. So, the boro sits neatly folded in my closet, waiting for another jacket to arrive. 

The process has gotten me interested in other textile traditions, however. Re-lining something such as an old cotton field jacket or a beat-up leather bomber seems like a nice way to (quietly) incorporate fabrics that might otherwise never get used in men’s clothing. One area of interest at the moment: African textiles – namely mud cloths and indigos, although since these traditions are so varied and intricate, I’ll only highlight the latter today. 

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In an old interview in the Wall Street Journal, Bruce Boyer once said it’s ironic “everyone thinks about luxury but real craftsmen are dying off.” And it’s absolutely true. Part of the problem is truly well-made things are often stratospherically expensive, which places them out of reach of most people. The other problem is that most of us rely on marketing literature for our understand of craft – and most of the time, that literature is put out by companies who have long abandoned traditional methods.

In footwear, for example, Goodyear-welt constructions are often touted as the Gold Standard. Alden says it’s “far superior to any other shoemaking method,” while Allen Edmonds says the “durability of a Goodyear-welted shoe is unmatched.” Dozens of other companies say similar things – “most reliable way to finish a shoe or boot” and such shoes “last longer than any other type of footwear.” This kind of information then gets propagated through online forums, blogs, and magazines.  

For the bulk of his career, DW Frommer II has been arguing differently. An acclaimed American bootmaker, he has over forty years of bespoke shoemaking experience under his belt. He’s also an active member on various online forums – where he’s well-known for his prickly personality. He’s not exactly shy about sharing his views on things, but for all his arguing over the years, he’s also taught many people (including me) the meaningful difference between machine- and handmade shoes.  

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Tomorrow is August 12th, otherwise known as The Glorious Twelfth. It marks the start of shooting season in the UK for red grouse – a medium-sized, fast-flying bird that lives in the country’s heather moorlands. Although wild, red grouse populations are managed by large estates, which open their property up this time of year to hunters. Although, this year, those estates might be closed for business. Unseasonably wet weather conditions have devastated stocks – which in turn have left fewer grouse on the moors. 

As you might expect, grouse hunting is not without its controversies. Mark Avery, a former conservation director for the RSPB, recently published a book titled Inglorious: Conflict in the Uplands. His argument: the intensive management that’s needed for large grouse populations – and thus larger “bags” for hunters – has damaged protected habitats, increased greenhouse gas emissions, polluted water supplies, and left downhill properties at greater risk of flooding. Plus, natural predators – including protected classes of birds of prey – are routinely killed, thus threatening other wildlife populations. With fewer predators, dense populations of grouse are more susceptible to diseases. 

He also argues that grouse hunting has lost all its sport. In the past, men used to walk across hills, shooting at grouse as they were flushed out of the moors. This form of shooting, known as walked-up shooting, happened until the invention of the breech-loading shotgun, which made reloading your firearm much easier (and bigger bags more feasible). Nowadays, estates largely operate on what’s known as driven shooting, where hunters wait in small shelters known as butts, while a distant line of “beaters” walk across the moorlands to flush grouse towards them. As he writes in his recent article in The Independent: 

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Last year’s tobacco Fresco run was a huge hit, so I’ve been working on some new custom-fabric projects. This time, however, I’d like to see if there’s any interest in running things through speciality mills such as Fox Brothers and Molloy & Sons. They’ll likely come with higher price tags, but – as anyone who has handled their cloths will know – the qualities they produce are outstanding. Here are some projects I’ve been thinking about:

• Navy Donegal: Run through Molloy & Sons, a small, father-and-son mill in Ireland. The fabric would look something like what you see above. Except, where that’s a smooth cashmere-blend, this would be rough and tweedy. Price is estimated to be around $150 per meter. 
  
• Tan Flannel: Like khaki cotton, but in a worsted wool. The idea is to have something you can use for trousers, which you can pair with navy or dark brown sport coats. (like this, but in flannel). I’m still looking for the right mill, but at the moment, I’m taking to Fox Brothers. Price has yet to be determined, but their usual out-the-book flannels are about $150 per meter. 
  

• Navy Fresco Houndstooth: Patterned summer jacketings are hard to find. This would be a mid-scale houndstooth in Fresco, which means you could use it for suits or sport coats. The color combination would either be in black/ navy or mid-blue/ navy. Price would be about $70 per meter. 
  
• Green Tweed: Specifically, a district check known as Kylnadrochit. Designed to be used for sport coats, which would end up looking something like this. I’m still looking for the right mill, so price has yet to be determined. 
  
• Textured silk/ linen blend: A dark-brown silk-linen blend with a lot of texture. Something like raw silk, but a little more breathable. At the moment, I’m talking to a UK mill and working out the price. 
  

If any of the projects sound interesting to you, please drop me an email at [email protected] and tell me what you might order (also mention the number of meters). Given that we’re organizing this as a group-order – rather than as a clothing label with guaranteed minimums – I’d like to make sure we have the prospect of putting something through before I ask these mills to run samples. 

For those curious, the jacket above is from Eidos, who ran a really nice, speckled, cashmere-blend last season. The photo itself is from Christian Kimber, who just relaunched with a new line of footwear and accessories. I’m a big fan of his pocket squares. 

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There are probably hundreds of online guides at this point on how to take care of leather shoes, but few that effectively address what to do with sneakers. Over the years, I’ve tried everything – from washing machines to repurposed suede erasers to stiff-bristled brushes dipped in various mixtures. Although they’ve all been effective to some degree or another, none have been anywhere near as good as Jason Markk. Comprised of a simple brush and some cleaning solution, their basic kit takes care of everything from suede to leather to canvas. 

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