The London Lounge

Gentlemen;
I have uploaded a photo to the gallery under "Member's Photos" of a pair of special order Romano Martegani shoes I recently purchased. Since I did not bespeak them, I hesitated to show them in the "handcrafted Bespoke Shoe" section of the photojournal. I abbrevaited the following for the caption:

These are my special order Martegani 'floating medallion', blutcher (Derby) style shoe on "3B" chiseled last. The leather is Radica 023, or "Testa di Moro," ("head of the Moor, I believe.) Mr. Ron Rider of Franco's, from whom I ordered the shoes, says that the contrasting 'inking' on the extension of the midsole and again on the sides of the midsole and outsole will be of particular note. Construction is Blake/Rapid variance, which means there is no welt, but a full midsole and outsole - Martegani's house term for this is 'Lordino ICP'. Mr. Rider tells me this is a construction that Giancarlo (the owner of Romano Martegani) developed, and is now being copied by at least one other Italian factory.

This is my first experience with MTM shoes and I am thrilled with the results. I hope you enjoy the photo. A disclaimer: I am not much of a photographer.

Regards,
Chris Cox

Hi Chris

The shoes look nice, I like the toe shape and especially the colour of the leather, i find that tone of dark brown hard to find, anyway I think they look great, I hope you have got a good pair of shoe trees to maintain the shape.

Your suit looks beautiful, I generally back from light coloured suits(being English and all) but when i get the balls to invest in one i think it will look pretty much like yours.

By the way are the suede shoes Crocketts, nice colour.

Kind regards

Tony

Dear Tony;
Thank you for the kind words. I do have shoe trees but took the photo at work the day I wore the shoes. As usual, it's an afterthought for me to "document" these things. I'm not yet used to the idea that there are others out there who actually give a fig about clothing. Given the memberhsip here, I have much to learn!

I'm very pleased with the Martegani's color and shape; although, I have to get used to the chisled look. I'm even more pleased with my vendor, Mr. Rider. He is most patient and understands his product as well as he does customer-service. A rarity. I'm looking into another pair of MTMs with him in the near future.

The shoes I wore with the glen check suit are Church's in Tobacco Cape Buck, on last 75 F (I think). They are 9 years old now.

Best regards,
Chris Cox

Chris,

Beautiful shoes. And the suit and the Church's suede shoes are wonderful to look at also. 3 piece suits are always elegant and you wear yours very well. You add additional class to a wonderful town, Richmond.

Regards,

Tom Hudson

Your post made me sad.

You see, I have that same pair of cape buffalo Church's shoes (and despite how people like to turn up their noses, the custom grade shoes on that last were great). Sad to say, but the soles were pretty run down, and I took them to my shoemaker to be redone. He replaced them with glued soles. He usually re-stitches welted shoes for me, but he told me that this time, the welts were too far gone. He is an honest hardworking man, and while I was annoyed, I will still use him. I will also tell him not to glue soles again without asking me first. In any event, the shoes look the same (but for the smooth soles), but they aren't the same to me anymore.

Gentlemen;
Thank you all for your kind thoughts. And Mr. dopey, words to the wise. I wil make sure that I have my Church's resoled before I run through the bottoms. The suit is one of my favourites, but I am afraid that it is getting a little tight though the shoulders. It will be the second one I commission when I step up to bespoke.

While I'm thinking of my shoes, is there a way to clean them up? I have a "suede brush" that I use for my white bucks, but it's made of metal bristles -- I'm anxious about subjecting the brogues to the same torture.

Regards,
CCox

I can't seem to find the pics

I only see 6 subfolders under Member's Photos and can't find these pics in any of them.