To celebrate Esquire’s 20th Birthday this month, my-wardrobe.com the UK’s leading online retailer of ‘everyday luxury’ designer fashion has joined forces with traditional English shoe makers Grenson to create an exclusive design of the William Brogue.The ‘William Brogue’ already exists in the Grenson range as their classic unlined brogue. Lee Douros, my-wardrobe.com Menswear Buyer and Tim Little, Creative Director of Grenson, have taken this classic style and given it a modern reconstruction using two tone suede and contrasting eyelets in a tonal summer colour palette. Unlike a regular ‘Goodyear Welted’ shoe, the unlined brogue has no lining, making it light and easy to wear.
The shoes are made in 4 stages: clicking, closing, lasting and finishing. The first refers to cutting the leather, the second to creating the upper, the third to the moulding of the shape and the fourth to polishing; in all, taking around three weeks to manufacture a pair.
All Grenson shoes are ‘Goodyear Welted’, a process invented in 1800s England which involves the upper part of the shoe being stretched and moulded over the last – a plastic shape that simulates the foot shape – before being attached to the insole of the shoe.
The process is time consuming but the result means that the shoe will keep its shape for many years.
Grenson was founded in 1866 as William Green & Son and abbreviated its name in the 1930s.
It supplied British servicemen during WW2 and its shoes were worn by film stars such as Cary Grant, David Niven and Fred Astaire.
See a few more angles here.
Photos & text Copyright Grenson, Courtesy My Wardrobe.
