-L.A.S
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
An Espadrille For Every Occasion
After walking around NYC for the past four days it has occurred to me that sometimes you need to ditch your hardbottoms for something a little more jaunt friendly. There's nothing wrong with a good pair of sneakers either, but after seeing some dudes killing it in espadrilles I figured I'd take a stab and pick up a pair. If anyone else is looking for a new pair of espadrilles your options are pretty deep to say the least. For those of you who happen to be straight up ballers you can head over to Stubbs & Wootton to pick up a pair of their $200 joints that come in camo, madras, linen, etc. The price tag is astronomical on a shoe you can get on any NYC street corner, but the fabric, construction and vamp styling (like that of a formal slipper) may just be the thing you are looking to pair with your Finamore seersucker shirts. Some other options, in varying price ranges and styles, are available here and here. Since this is a relatively new style move by yours truly (I've never messed with TOMS or anything like that) I went with the $14 navy joints at Urban Outfitters as a test run. For other first timers I recommend sticking with solid, wearable colors because once you start veering into Glenn O'Brien territory all bets are off - no kit is sacred. It's difficult to figure out where some of these are made and an "imported" tag is most likely all you're going to turn up. That could mean south of the border or Asia, so cross your fingers that they're made by the same folks who wear 'em to work. I can see these looking real crispy with a freshly creased pair of chinos with no break and a Hanes white tee. So who's buying those cruise tickets?
-L.A.S
-L.A.S
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These actually look quite cool. But I've never had espandrilles and I don't feel I missed out on something. All of my friends have them though so I guess there has to be something about them ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, that price point is ridiculous. If one were to calculate a quality to price ratio, the "import" from "south of the border or Asia" would be a sure fire winner over the ones made by lower class peasants in a richer country. And, what's wrong with TOMs? At least they're doing something good for somebody. btw, you're a lot better looking than I previously imagined, no homo.
ReplyDeleteAnon- Tom's don't look that good to me. Here's an interesting counterpoint to their whole charity aspect:
ReplyDeletehttp://putthison.com/search/Toms
Haha, you saw me recently? You should have said what's up.
Sorry for this extremely long comment
ReplyDeleteTOMs rock. I own a classic pair and a pair of the cordones and they are very comfortable. I don't know if you can find it on youtube or whatever but I caught an episode of the Today Show a few months back and they had the guy who started TOMs on.
It's not about kids having fashionable shoes but kids having a pair of shoes. One of their points was that some of these third world schools require that the students wear a pair of shoes as part of the dress code. Espadrille's are the perfect "charity shoe" model because they are extremely cheap to make and so the founder went on to explain that if he just took the original 30 grand he had and donated it wouldn't have gone nearly as far as running a company that turns a profit so that it can survive for more than just a couple of years and continuously give shoes to kids that need em. But yeah obviously shoes aren't a necessity for survival but at least they are doing some good right?
Keep your trousers trim or you'll look dumb. It's all about the proportions.
ReplyDeleteI'm from the ignorant midwest, but, uh, these look like girl's shoes. The red ones look like something Dorothy would click together for magical transport to a beach vacation. Don't get me started on the twee little heels.
ReplyDeleteThe UO and Tom's models have all the style of wet cardboard boxes, which gives them at least a dash of manliness, like you made them yourself on a desert island out of rope and sail. Blindfolded and with your left hand. And only because Wilson hid your black Reeboks with the cut off toes.
And per your reference link? Hell, if I had dreads, a plaid suit, and a pink chiffon pocket square (pocket scarf?) maybe I could kill it too. Or I'd look like Ted from Accounting transported into a Red Stripe commercial.
I only criticize because I love this blog so much and, barring the slimcut blue camo mcnairy cargos, you usually recommend exceedingly stylish, simple things that any dude could pull off. What was so wrong with white vans?
Yes to white Vans.
ReplyDeleteNo to looking like a girl.
The camo ones are legit. Wow.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with J.R.--I think Jesse at Put This On is missing the point. To call "charitable consumption" "absurd" is a little rough; why can't we have our cake and eat it too? And I think part of the point is you're getting people to do something for charity without having to actively, you know, DO it.
ReplyDeleteI've been wearing TOMS since they started--my buddies and I used to go into their warehouse in Santa Monica and buy them straight out of the cartons.
These guys care about what they're doing, but the political/charitable argument aside, they're also committed to making their product better. I'm sure very few people remember the first run of shoes, but the quality has increased substantially since then (and they were pretty good to start with).
Anyways, rant over. Espadrilles for the win.