Kindly wear them again tomorrow and every day after. I would like to know how a pair of Church's holds up without any rest. Preferably, do not even use the shoetree.

Hello gents,

I thought I would post here instead of the rather mixed bag in the marketplace. I trust you will find this of interest. I recently bought three pairs of shoes off Styleforum that don't fit me well for various reasons. Are any of you interested in taking them off my hands?

They are:
Tan pebble grain Florsheim Imperial 'Kenmoor' longwings. Used, vintage, good condition, Vibram-ed outsoles. US10C.
Dark brown Church's Custom Grade penny loafers. Used, very good condition. Hardly any creases. UK7.5F
Chocolate suede Alfred Sargent oxford brogues. Used, slightly below average condition. UK7.5F

I'm thinking SGD150 (or RM360) with shipping to Malaysia for the Church's and Florsheims and cheaper for the Sargents. Save on shipping if you're in Singapore.

With due respect if one wishes to prolong the life of the shoe, one should try to rotate the use of the shoe by not wearing the same pair for more than 2 days in a row. Using the shoe trees when the shoe is not being worn would also help prolong their shape.

He's just bitter

Like what Cheenoo said.

Anyway, I wonder who is going to take hst's $1,400 Berluti:

The dude's taking a big risk buying shoes without first being able to see them or try on.

Well, hello there. Do we have here an SF'er from Singapore?

By the way, did you get your Florsheim from Roguls? I think he listed up a pair in his Marketplace thread.

Nice . My thoughts on this are as follows:-

1. It's difficult to buy shoes off the net or by mail order unless one is familiar with the cut & fit of the shoe in question. The added challenge with pre-owned shoes is it's condition. It is one thing to look silly in ill fitting clothes but ill fitting shoes may result in bunions , callouses and other feet related problems.

2. Further , the asking price is close to a new pair one could purchase at an outlet in Europe .

3. Then there is the brand itself. Berluti RTW are made by Ferrara by Stefanobi in Italy. Most of their RTW range are Blake finished instead of Goodyear welted . This poses a challenge when the shoes require refurbishment or repairs. Contrary to popular belief, Blake finished shoes can be repaired but at significantly higher costs than Goodyear Welted ones .

4. The patinized Venezia leather of the Berluti is it's key attraction. However it is very delicate & does not survive abuse easily.

5. Berluti RTW is generally available in one width which makes it challenging for those of us whose feet are of different widths.

6. Berluti does offer an MTM service or special order but there are no ability to vary the size & fit ( only the leather,color & sole design can be altered ). I believe the MTM versions are made by the abovenamed manufacturer.

7. If you are one of the fortunate few to be offered the "sur mesure" ( bespoke ) service & it is easily within your means ( after you've IPO your business ) , go for it. The bespoke versions are still made in their Paris workshops. I used the term "offered" as some individuals I know have requested this service & are still waiting for the last 6 to 9 months to be measured. It may be another 1 to 1 half years before they will eventually obtain the finished pair.

In the meantime enjoy the following:-

Very nice Lobbs. Certainly a win.

Got them at a significantly reduced price when Hermes Singapore getting rid of the stock.(They were ceasing the sales of Lobbs in the Singapore Boutique ) Negotiated & got them to throw in the shoe trees too for a nominal sum.

Hi there

Yes the Florsheims are from roguls. You must be in the market for a pair too? They fit a little big for me so I thought I would do an interest check. Lovely shoes though.

I'm more like a long term Malaysian expat in Singapore. Or economic refugee?

Hello gentlemen

I am a lowly student in London Town who has a penchant for suits, shoes, whisky, wine and most other indulgences that one may be able to think of. Being Malaysian, I am pleasantly surprised by a few threads in this forum. At some point in my life, I will probably return to Malaysia and I hope to get to know more about the sartorial (I'm almost gagging at the thought of myself actually using this word) scene there. My collection of note-worthy articles of clothing remain limited at the moment but I would like to share some of them here. I will try my best to contribute to the forum and perhaps use my current location to provide updates on the latest exploits in Northampton and Jermyn Street. Savile Row remains out of reach.

Before I become a bore, here are some of my shoes for your amusement. Pardon me for the bad photo quality.

Loake, Oxfords



Loake (L1, made in India line), full brogues



Church's, Custom grade full brogues



Kurt Geiger, blake-stitched patent leather dress shoes

As much I like goodyear welted shoes, I do draw the line at dress shoes



Reiss, chestnut (or is it closer to ox-blood) "I-don't-know-what-to-call-them" shoes. The leather isn't fantastic and cracked heavily after half a year. It's currently three years old. The only reason why they're not with Oxfam is because I quite like the patina it has developed. Perhaps it's not very visible in the pictures, but this pair's ability to age rather gracefully makes it a joy to polish.



That's all for know. I shall post in the suiting thread very soon. My suits are not spectacular though. Just some heavily altered ready-to-wear ones.

One word of advice:- get all the nice stuff ( shirts, suits etc ) before returning to Malaysia. Not only is there a scarcity of it here but whatever is available is significantly more expensive than London. There is also an additional benefit of using it as samples to be copied once you establish a relationship with a good tailor here.

I don't expect any of you to know, but where do I find navy and oxblood shoe polish in the Klang Valley?

---

Added on July 22, 2010, 4:07 pmIs London really such a cheap source of clothes? We have P.Lal here for shoes, Iris Tailor over the Causeway for suits, and good shirts can be made anywhere if you can source your own fabrics. I'm curious to know what is significantly more expensive here than in London.

This post has been edited by kotmj: Jul 22 2010, 04:07 PM

While I cannot give any recommendations in Klang Valley, I do believe that the Isetan in KLCC carries a range of Woly and Church's shoe care products. I remember getting a tube of neutral shoe cream from them a year ago. Even then, I can't give my guarantee that they will have polish or creams in the colours that you want. So don't make that special journey!





Well, I believe that Beau is right in this case. For shoes, most good ones are made in Northampton and from what I hear, if one went to the factory stores there, a pair of C&J can be had for around £100. In London itself, I know of a store selling Loakes for £65 for entry level ones to £85 for those in calf skin. They do Barker calf skins for just below £100. The great thing is that the store is easily accessible and the same prices apply all year round. Plus, they're not seconds. There's a Church's outlet store in Bicester where seconds of their custom grade shoes go for £160. If one can afford them, London gives access to the real John Lobb (not the Hermes owned company) and George Cleverly!

I don't really want to talk about shirts and suits here for the fear of being chastised (there is a suiting thread after all), but since I am asked... The average ready to wear shirt here is much better than the average tailored shirt in Malaysia (be it MTM or supposedly bespoke). For around £25, one get purchase shirts of very decent quality from Charles Tyrwhitt, Hawes and Curtis and T.M. Lewin (I include Lewin with trepidation). They come in a large variety of fabrics (twill, herringbone, pindot etc) and styles. Going a few steps higher in the hierachy of shirts, Turnbull and Asser do offer shirts for around £50 during the summer and winter sales.

Suits are quite a different story however. Most MTM or bespoke suits are hideously expensive. Almost all the lower end tailors outsource their work to Thailand, China or Nepal. Like many tailors in Malaysia, they don't actually know the difference between MTM and bespoke. The ready to wear scene is good though. I just bought 2 suits from Charles Tyrwhitt (one of them a 3-piece) for less than £600 with alterations included. They are made from pure wool (I think they are 110s) fabric milled in Yorkshire and are half canvassed (horse and goat hair). Working cuffs too! Having said all of this, most clothes here are too large for me and need alterations which adds up to the cost.

To sum up, I believe that Malaysia may be cheaper if one really takes the extra mile or in some cases miles. On average though, England is probably cheaper given the prevailing exchange rate. Furthermore, sales assistants and shop owners in England tend to be more knowledgeable than their Malaysian counterparts which takes a lot of frustration away. Please forgive me for being very bourgeoisie by mentioning money (£) very often in this post. I mean to cause no offence but only to provide a point for comparison.

Very interesting. Keep the info coming, please. Thanks.

Very informative, thanks. I didn't know shoes were that cheap there.

WRT shirts, I am incapable of returning to RTW anymore. None come remotely close to fitting me nor anyone I've met. My first encounter with a bespoke shirt was one being worn by the son of an industrialist. It was a plain light blue shirt, but I was stunned by it. It was the first time I saw a shirt that actually fit. There is no comparison to RTW.

I have seen the online CT sales of 4 shirts for 100 pounds, but the patterns are of the experimental sort. CT shirts also seem to have really bad cloths from the few examples I've inspected in person. No doubt T&A are better at 50 pounds each during sales, but I can have bespoke shirts of comparable workmanship with Acorn fabrics of my choice from their Grange range of cloths for less than that.

Your CT suits are keenly priced and I look forward to seeing fit pics. I believe AL can make you significantly better suits for a bit less money. They only ever cost me a touch more than RM1k each, and they are cut to my personal pattern and configured to my every wish. The cloth is anything you can source yourself. I've only used stuff from Huddersfield to-date (of course 100% wool), but you can also source for Dugdale yourself at a premium of about RM300/suit over ebay cloths.

But the shoes are definitely something to shop for in London...

This post has been edited by kotmj: Jul 22 2010, 06:50 PM

Those Lobbs are very nice.

But these are nicer still.

Patent leather bluchers?!

They're water-polished leh



This post has been edited by kotmj: Jul 22 2010, 10:43 PM