Showing posts with label Shoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shoes. Show all posts

Friday, 22 April 2011

How One Covets a Thing

Apologies to all for the brief hiatus in our usual broadcasting. Tea stocks at the Club house were running dangerously low so our editor-in-chief, brave man that he is, skipped off to China in search of new supplies. I am reliably informed he has just been seen putting back into port at Dover, laden with crates of Oriental provender and accompanied by enough pack-donkeys to cart it all back to Ataraxia HQ in time for elevenses.

We'd better get on with some work before he gets here.

Today I would like to show you an example of shoe design done right, courtesy of those gentleman cobblers over at Lodgers. '
The Hamilton Military' is an exquisite take on the classic Oxford which goes to prove that you can have colour in shoes without compromising one bit on their style or elegance.

Couple with a well-tailored grey 3-piece suit for a razor-sharp image that may well result in immediate job offers from Whitehall. Also ideal paired with a complimentary lightweight tweed when around town. Onlookers will see the care and craft evident in every detail, from the hand-burnished toe to the wine-red sole.

Unfortunately, but inevitably, they are very, very expensive. My advice? Think hard about which of your organs you need the least and sell it to raise the necessary funds. If you're hesitant about sacrifing a kidney for a pair of shoes, it may help to know that bespoke wooden shoe trees, shoe bags and a storage box are all included in the price.

A word of thanks and credit where it's due. This commendable and covetable morsel first came to my attention via Justin FitzPatrick's excellent blog '
The Shoe Snob'.

Friday, 21 January 2011

Best of the Auction house - Men's Shoes

Ever crusaders of paying less for something, The Ataraxians are at hand to provide the good-to-honest dapper chappie with a monthly guide to the best quality items currently available second hand (vintage, if you really must insist) on this hyper-mega-web-spider thing.

This month we highlight the honest shoe - oft overlooked and frequently awful.

British men have access to the highest quality footwear anywhere in the world yet, as I gaze across the souless wasteland of the Tube I see square fronted, near-plastic insults to Empire adorn the feet of Britian's professional workforce.

I ask you how can a country escape national debt crisis if it can't even tie a decent pair of laces!

It is interest of the nation's salvation that I have provided you with a few fruits of the worlds most respected shoemakers currently available for some very, very reasonable prices.



The Dream: Currently availible on Ebay for £139

Hand made British shoes:
Loake Tassel-Loafer sz 8.5
Loake Brown Leather lace up sz 10
Loake Black formal Lace-Up sz 8
Cheaney 'Deacon' leather Brogues sz 10F
Barker Brown Brogues sz 8F
Alfred Sargent Men's Tan Brogues  Sz 9
Alfred Sargent Suede Slip-on's Sz 8

Continental shoes:
Bally Brown Tassel-Loafer sz 10
Bally Dark Blue Loafer sz 10
Bally Dark Brown Buckle Brogue sz 8
Tods Dark Brown Oxford brogue sz 8
Prada Brown Loafer sz 8.5

Other:
Reiss Brown Loafer (Not hand made) Sz 8
Savile Row Co. Brown Leather shoes Sz 8
Savile Row Co. Brown Stirrup Shoes Sz 9
Urban Outfitters Grey Suede Desert Boot sz 9

End of public information broadcast.