Disclaimer: my tailor will hate me for what I’m about to say. Last month I attended the launch party of an exquisitely luxurious new menswear collection wearing shoes that cost less than the canapés on offer. Fifty-pound-pounder-next-pricepoint shoes. £35 from Next, to be exact.
I’d bought them hurriedly the day before when I noticed the leather loafers I always wear had some kind of tea-stain-coloured mark on them that looked suspiciously faeces-like. They were cheap. Next ones always are.
But these were the final DESCENT into bargain shoe territory. Dark brown, definitely penny loafer but with an unexpectedly slim silhouette, and leather that at least looked like leather. Three people approached me during the evening – THREE – to tell me they thought they were handmade by C&J.
One man, who I am pretty sure was wearing a Brunello Cucinelli blazer that cost more than my rent deposit, leaned down to inspect them closer. “Lovely patina on those”, he nodded sagely.
Inside, I wanted to scream “NO THEY’RE FROM NEXT AND I BOUGHT THEM YESTERDAY!” but instead remained Nice English Gentleman Stock Quiet Freak. This is not the first time this has happened to me, either. Next aren’t alone.
Something quietly revolutionary is happening on the high street at the moment in terms of footwear. High street shoe design teams across the board have apparently spent the last few years listening to what we want and stepped their games up several notches, producing shoes that, upon first (and sometimes second) glance, passingly resemble their five-times-more-expensive counterparts. I picked up these ones from Next’s “Signature” collection, their penny loafers with the surprisingly slim silhouette and surprisingly lack of bulbous toes/chunky square edges/etc. that generally accompany Next shoes.
They’ve got a leather sole (it’s thin, yes, but a leather sole nonetheless), they’re Goodyear welted with actual leather (again, not the highest-quality material you’ll come across, but leather nonetheless), and the leather itself isn’t immune to developing a pretty sweet patina after a few wears. The thing is, not only do these shoes just happen to look nice. They’re actively DESIGNING themselves to look like nicer shoes. The toe shape.
The leather strap proportions. They’ve even managed to replicate that subtly-worn look C&J and Co. Cheaney jackets naturally have straight out the box.
Small details like these, that aren’t screaming “LOOK OVER HERE I AM A FAKE!” but rather quietly hinting “WE ARE JUST LIKE THE REAL THING” are a total gamechanger. Marks & Spencer do a whole range of Church’s-esque shoes at the moment. Zara do loafers that upon first glance look suspiciously like certain Italian brands’ camping sandals.
Clarks are quietly releasing jewel shoes that look like they fucked Tricker’s and took their embryos home without telling them. The beauty of these unassuming boot-snitches, however, is that they not only LOOK expensive but there’s a whole cunning way you can wear them to further enhance the illusion. To someone who knows what a quality shoe looks like up-close (hiya), the differences are obvious.
It’s a cheaper grade leather, so lacks the richness in colour and suppleness in the grain that you get from luxury manufacturers. The stitching isn’t painstakingly perfect. And the finishing just isn’t quite there…yet. Condition them shitloads beforehand.
The shoes come out of the box with a pristine, slightly plasticy-looking finish that is the hallmark of mass-produced shoes. They didn’t even look like leather until I treated them with two applications of Saphir Renovateur (yes, cost twice as much as the shoes themselves) and rubbed some dark brown polish into the toe and heel areas. Suddenly they had dimension that’s reminiscent of quality shoes that have been worn for years.
Wear them with something genuine. High-low’s been a fashion blogger’s best friend for years, and it works for shoes too. I find that when you pair a high street shoe with something remotely luxurious it makes the shoe appear more expensive by association.
Think sharp breaks on a well-tailored trouser. My usual trick is a pair of mid-grey flannel trousers with a razor sharp break that just grazes the tops of the shoes. Think about where you’d expect people’s eyes to go first – for me it’s usually trousers firstly so if the pair above make your trousers look half-decent then everyone wins. Talk about the small stuff.
If your shoes come with disgustingly bright white plastic laces then throw them away and replace them with something less conspicuous. Spend a tenner on some waxed cotton ones and your entire shoe instantly looks a thousand times more expensive. Same goes for the insole.
If it’s rubbish, replace it. Have pride in your selections. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen guys ruin otherwise half-decent outfits by announcing at the outset that they know their shoes are stupid.
Half the time nobody cares. Let people make their own minds up. Trust me on this.
Wore these guys out for lunch with a pair of jeans and navy blazer last Friday. Pretty shirt thing from Need Supply Co as well but you get the gist. Browsing round Liberty’s on Monday.
Assitant INSPECTING them like they were a Ralph Lauren shoe. Got ridiculously smug, naturally. Firiled up even took a couple of snaps for this article.
Who cares if they’re from Next when you can pass them off as £400 shoes? Bad at maths? You do now. The irony is that whilst designer brands are busy plastering their logos all over literally everything next season, high street shoes are quietly becoming better resellers of gentlemanly sleight of hand.
The juxtaposition of luxury brands trying to LOOK expensive at all costs (hello reflective bum tags on bum bags) whilst the high street quietly release their dummy’s delight concoctions of understated luxury is frankly hilarious. Now, before anyone jumps down my throat shouting about “quality” and “how long they’ll last”, I’m not saying that these high street alternatives are BETTER than the real thing. Of course they’re not.
A handmade shoe from Northampton will last you half a lifetime if you look after them; they’ll wear better, they’ll become more beautiful with age, and they’ll just FEEL like a nicer shoe.
I get that, and I will begrudgingly concede their points whenever someone brings them up. But they’re getting better, that’s the point.
We’re living in a world now where the gap between high street and high end is closing rapidly in terms of design, but what about in quality? What about longevity? I can guarantee you that these shoes WILL NOT last anywhere near as long as their bespoke brethren.
But I can also guarantee that, when dressed correctly and treated with a bit of TLC, they’re now CLOSE enough ENOUGH for most people. Me included. I got about two weeks solid wear out of these shoes before the leather started creasing in a way that’ll definitely give me away eventually.
The soles aren’t quite as robust as a traditional Goodyear welted shoe and will wear through long before you’d expect a properly constructed shoe to. But for £35? Sonofabitches.
