Garment and Shoe Care #1 - GIVE Your TOMS Some TLC

Having recently become involved in the TOMS Campus Club program I've gotten even more familiar with this brand and the amazing work they do around the world. Even though I only own 2 pairs of TOMS I am a huge fan of them and after having gotten mine a little dirty, I started thinking of how I should go about to clean them. If you don't own any TOMS pairs of shoes, and I do recommend you visit TOMS.com and check them out, don't worry, this post can apply to mostly any canvas shoes or espadrilles.

So TOMS get a little stinky from the leather inside and sometimes they absorb some dirt and dust, but this should turn you away from buying a pair because it's really easy to get your TOMS back into tip-top shape. Most people go about hand-washing their TOMS, but I think that's necessary because they are pretty sturdy and unless your washing machine's cycle speed can;t be controlled, I don't see any reason to encumber yourself with hand washing them.

1. Wash your TOMS by themselves on your washing machine's most gentle cycle. Add laundry detergent only ( NO bleach) and wash

2. Either let your TOMS dry out in the sun (discolorations might appear) or dry them on LOW or NO heat along with a couple of WET towels and a dryer sheet. If you have a dryer rack, dry them on there.

Your TOMS might feel shrunk or the leather inside may have curled up a bit when you get them out of the dryer. It's normal so don't worry! Just wear them for like 10 minutes and they're back to normal, dear!

How It's Made #4 - Esquivel Shoes

The more time I spend in the USA the more I am impressed with the quality and craftsmanship of locally-made items, despite being quite biased due to my European upbringing. I talked about the Alden shoe factory a while back and now I want you to introduce you to a west-coast, California-based Luxury Shoe Manufacturer: Esquivel.

Even though Esquivel markets these marvelously finished pairs as Women's shoes,  there's nothing that I see that would make them unwearable by men. 

The following video is a slideshow of stills taken during the making of Esquivel shoes:

The Esquivel website does not feature an online store, however Esquivel shoes and boots can be purchased at Endless.com

There's just something I love about green leather

Fashion Forward #3 - Just Wearing My Blue Suede Shoes

Suede also Suède  (pronounced swayd) is short for Suède gloves, from French gants de Suède, gloves of Sweden, from Suède, Sweden. It has now represented as a type of leather that has a soft napped surface or any other fabric made to resemble suede.

In 1955, Carl Perkins wrote and recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" at the Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. This original recording is considered one of the most significant and groundbreaking American songs of the 20th Century. As you may know, a young newcomer named Elvis Presley recorded his own cover version the following year. 

Quote from Epauletshop.com

Blue suede has been heralded as this Spring and Summer seasons' IT trend and I can definitely attest to its veridicity. Even here in my little corner of Europe where trends take some time penetrating into, I have begun to see more and more guys and girls donning the blue suede shoe. The Style forums have featured a lot of detractors that recognize the visual value of blue suede but fail to see its practicality in daily style. 

Well I am here to tell both them and you that blue suede is definitely here to stay and wearing it can be done in a very natty and easy manner.

What has become a trend for European men, as far as I can tell, is matching the colour of their shoes to their top item of clothing, but always the same shade or if an appropriate shade was not available, using a non-coloured item instead. While it is harder to do this with some of the more eccentric shades shoes come in nowadays, blue suede shoes can be so easily matched with either a nice blue blazer (wool if it's winter, cotton or chambray if it's summer), a V-neck sweater and even a nice v-neck t-shirt if you're wearing a more casual/summery blue suede shoe.

For the more adventurous of you fashionistos, you can try matching the blue suede with another colour. When it comes to what kind of pants you're wearing, I'd recommend either a dark blue/raw denim pant (straight or slim cut of course) or doing what the very fashionable Italian fella did in the picture above and go with a white pant, preferably without a bottom cuff. In some rare occasions, if the opportunity arises you can match a darker shade of blue suede to a dark suit pant such as the gentleman below.

In the case of picking a top to go with your blue suedes, always remember to check the colour wheel to determine what the best match would be for your shade of blue. Generally, the complementary and the triad colours are the best matches, however in the case of blue, I find that it's generally best to stick with just the complementary colour, orange (much like the shade of the Vespa above). If you do like to use some contrast, depending on the specific shade of blue the appropriate matching colours range from greenish yellow to purplish red.

Here is a compilation of some of my favourite blue suede shoes, which now come in great variety.

1. Alden for Epaulet Navy Suede Perkins Chukka - $425; 2. ACNE Delhi Suede Lace Boaters - $467; 3. Opening Ceremony Suede Desert Boot; 4. Closed Distressed Boot - $321; 5. A.P.C. Blue Suede Boots - $330; 6. Gordon Rush Royal-Blue Suede Chukka Boot for Saks Fifth Avenue - $495; 7. Emerica Reynolds  Blue Suede Cruisers - $59.99; 8. CAR SHOE Suede Tie Loafer - $372; 9. Dolce&Gabbana Navy Suede Shoes - $500; 10. Supra Vaider High Blue Suede Skate Shoes - $74.99

Last but not least, suede in general is very sensitive and blue suede isn't any exception. I would rather say blue suede is more delicate and sensitive than other naturally occurring coloured suedes. 

Here is a video on how to care for your suede:

You can purchase a Suede Care Kit from Amazon.com. It features a Suede Protective Spray, a Suede Cleaner Concentrate, a Suede brush and a Suede Scuff Eraser for only $10.85

How It's Made #1 - Alden Shoes

When it comes to great quality American-made shoes, Alden is one of the classic companies one would think of. Courtesy of Epauletshop.com we get a glimpse into the labour-intensive process that a shoe has to go through to transform from a sheet of leather into the beautiful shoes Alden has to offer. Enjoy!

The Perfect Knot

How many times have you had to bend down in the most inopportune of times and places to retie your shoelaces? If you do a lot of walking and you own any other shoes besides Crocs and/or sandals (although I do hope that having come across my blog means you are not among that kind of people), the answer should be many, many annoying times. 

I used to be very annoyed with having to tie and retie my shoelaces (especially those of my boat shoes) over and over again each day, until I mustered enough angst and googled my way out of this problem. I was lucky enough to stumble upon Ian's Shoelace Site which I also referenced in my previous shoelace post, Spiraling Shoelaces.

Ian features many shoelace knots on his website, however when it comes to simplicity and reliability, his own creation, Ian's Knot stands out the most. While it took a little while to get used to tying my shoelaces this way, it definitely paid off and I now only have to tie them one time only, when I put my shoes on in the morning.

Ladies and gents, I give you Ian's Knot. Use it if you are also encumbered by your slipper shoelaces and let me know by means of comments if you know of any other good shoelace knots!

I'll Be the Boy Who Cries Wolf...

....although this time I won't be lying about anything and no wolf will be attacking my flock. This time, when I Cry Wolf, I will be referring to the NYC based store with the same name.

Cry Wolf, is a modern store that keeps the young urban-wearer in mind, bringing eclectic designers like Creative Recreation, Acne, Chronicles of Never and Y-3 together in their selections.

Here are my favourite items:

On the left side we have Cesario Blue ($68), Dicoco ($108) on top and Cesario Brown ($78) on the bottom, all three from Creative Recreation. 

In the center, my favourite, is another pair of sneakers from Creative Recreation, dubbed for good reason, Skittles ($89)

On the right side are two very interesting items, a short sleeved shirt with a hood from S2VS ($73) and a sweater that featuresa dettachable wrap hood from Wrath Arcane ($135)

An Autochtonous Revelation

In spite of centuries of toil and trouble,

In wild Wallachian lands of old,

The people are still unabated,

And each day brings more wonders to behold.

It rarely happens that Western Europe, with its "Meccan" centers of fashion, Paris and Milan, looks to the East for innovation and beauty in the form of fashionable creations.

I have had the luck of stumbling upon a little shop in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, a former Communist country that is voraciously enjoying and devouring Capitalism. Few would stop and look for innovation in a place where imitation is so rampant, but Mihaela Glavan's new store, Sepala, breaks from the confines of its geographical location and brings new ideas to light by means of its exquisite Men and Women's Shoe Collections.

With its three distinctive collections: Mihaela Glavan, Sepala and RSM (Reconstructed Style for Men ), its designer, Mihaela Glavan has had the opportunity to experience with bold colours such as bright red, neon green or light blue, which most shoe designers avoid like the plague. She has also redefined the standards of prime materials used in her shoes and has often varied their respective combinations. For that reason some of her creations include leather and suede and velcro, nubuck and leather and even leather and PVC.

The best thing about Sepala is that all shoes can be customized in store and ordered to size if unavailable.

The Sepala Store can be found at "24 Intrarea Tudor Stefan (Dorobanti area), Bucharest, Romania" or if you would like to contact them regarding  an order, online here.

Spiraling Shoelaces

Make a tepee. Come inside.
 Pull down tight so we can hide.
Around the mountain... here we go!
 Here's my arrow. Here's my bow.

We seldom think of what ties everything together in our daily tribulations yet it is what unifies almost all shoes on this earth. While there are almost 2 trillion ( that's 2,000,000,000,000) possible mathematical combinations of lacing a shoelace, practically there are only around 43,200 ways of tying the lace for he average 12 inlet shoe.


For some, tying their laces has become a form of expressing themselves while for others it's nothing more than a hassle. Here's a couple of the most interesting patterns around:

In practicality, most of us desire a more traditional pattern that channels sobriety and not the childish stereotype that funky shoelaces and shoelace patterns bring. To that end, Ian from Ian's Shoelace Site (yep, there's a website for everything nowadays) catalogues the different patterns on his website depending on simplicity, comfort, neatness and whether or not one pattern wears the shoe out more than others.


These are of few favourites of Ian and myself:



1. The Over-and-Under Lace

The alternating over and under pattern looks great on a pair of Converse although you shouldn't be afraid of straying away from the white shoelace. You can find the pattern and how to tie it here.


2. The Criss-Cross


The Criss-cross is the most common of patterns and is also one of the most comfortable as the crossover of laces takes place in the gap between the sides of the shoe. You can find the pattern and how to tie it here. 






3. The Ladder-Lacing


This pattern goes very well with boots and is often used by ceremonial guards, ice-skaters and paratroopers. The higher the boot the better this pattern looks. The pattern and how to tie it can be found here.





4. The Footbag Lacing


To end this post on shoelaces, I've chosen the Footbag Lace, designed to facilitate the catching of the ball in Footbag games. I personally think it works great on ankle-high Suede boots as well. Try it out and shoot me with a comment or a picture.

To TOMS or Not to TOMS?!

A while back I saw this pair of TOMS on Rugby.com and even though I was not, at that time, familiar with TOMS shoes I wanted to get a pair for two reasons. One was that they were a limited edition so chances of meeting someone else wearing a pair would be smaller and second TOMS has a campaign called "One for One", which means that for every pair you buy they give a pair of shoes to a child in need. So next time you consider buying a pair of light, trendy shoes think of TOMS. Make sure you check out the other Rugby TOMS while they last!

Hoodoo much ? CoN's Skeleton Key Boots !

Not only is the name of these CoN (Chronicles of Never) boots reminiscent of the New Orleans-based horror movie with the same name, but also their shine and construction bring about a certain allure of mystery. These boots would definitely be at the top of my newly-formed Desert Boots list were they not $450.