Cufflink79 wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but I thought N&L took over Poulsen & Skone in the early 1970s?
Correct.
I think they still use the name to this day.
Incorrect. N&L acquired this bespoke maker in the 1970s and continued to supply bespoke shoes of great quality and value through the 1980s -- as George Cleverley and his colleagues Carnera and Glasgow worked there.
In 1991 or so New & Lingwood itself was acquired by a fellow named Spitz, who allegedly instituted some drastic cost-cutting measures. One was the de facto demise of N&L's sub Bowring Arundel in Savile Row (whose space was promptly taken by RJ for his first shop), which, along with the old incarnation of Beale and Inman of Bond Street, appears to have been better shirtmakers than anyone on Jermyn Street. Another is that -- for whatever reason -- the Poulsen Skone bespoke crew largely decamped, many to the refounded Cleverley firm (it had existed in the 1960s before Cleverley went back in-house). An AAAC forum member who patronized Poulsen Skone and now Cleverley informed me that he had no knowledge that N&L continued to make bespoke shoes, but that he hopes they no longer do, as the quality just wasn't there after the Cleverley crew left.
Poulsen Skone continued to be used as a name for the more expensive line of ready-to-wear shoes sold at New & Lingwood, first made by Edward Green (I'm wearing a pair today, in fact) and later by Grenson. However, about three years ago the name Poulsen Skone surfaced instead on shoes sold at Dunhill in NYC and London, and N&L rebadged its former Poulsen Skone shoes as the "St. James" collection. Poulsen Skone now appears to exist basically as a RTW mark sold at Dunhill and made, variously, by Alfred Sargent, Crockett & Jones or Grenson -- I think consensus is that it's now made by C&J.
All this is to say that there is no longer any Poulsen Skone at New & Lingwood, bar some remnants in its sales (there are still one or two Edward Greens, for the dogged). While N&L may still offer bespoke shoemaking, it apparently must be on a very small basis as I haven't come across anyone on these fora who's obtained bespoke N&L in the last 10 or 15 years. Their website used to say that their shoes were inspired by their bespoke collection, but whether that just means the bespoke display models or an active practice is debatable.
