Like most Englishmen of style I have owned several pairs of Church’s shoes.  They are a rite of passage when one first starts work in the City, a good suit and a pair of Church’s black Oxfords are the necessary first purchase.

I have reached that stage where several good pairs of shoes, having seen ten or more years’ service, are starting to fade.  Still good, but not good enough for important meetings, negotiations with clients etc.  So I have been looking to buy shoes.  As I recently recounted, I bought a great pair of Walgraves in Grenson  two weeks ago and am looking to add to my collection.

So I was browsing the Church’s store in Canary Wharf.  My only recent contact with Church’s was in their Regent Street store, where I was very impressed with their service.  I watched as the staff helped a woman, for whom English was a second language, buy the right pair of shoes for her husband (who was not present).  It was obvious that the guy serving her really cared about getting it right for her and went to a great deal of trouble on her behalf.

In the Canary Wharf store one of the staff, Ian, was answering my questions about Church’s shoes.  In a few short minutes I learnt a great deal about Church’s shoes and the sixteen week process that takes each pair of shoes from raw leather to polished final product.  It was clear that Ian really knew his Church’s.  He also had good things to say about the competition (we were talking about Crockett and Jones English shoes).  It is always reassuring (though unfortunately rare) when a salesman can do this, it shows he knows his market and is confident of his product.

I was still browsing when a couple came into the store and Ian went to help them.  I want to try and keep this couple anonymous because basically I was eavesdropping on their conversation.  The man was mid-forties and wearing expensive casual clothes, including a very classy sweater that looked to be a silk/cashmere mix.  His wife was early forties, well dressed and extremely elegant.  He was European, though I will keep his nationality deliberately vague. 

The man told Ian that he was a long-time customer of Church’s and had many pairs of their shoes.  That, because of a foot problem he now had to wear insoles which made his shoes too tight and wanted to know which Church’s he could wear.  He (the customer) was very precise and knew a lot about Church’s shoes. 

Ian was able to tell him immediately which Church models he could wear, which fittings would be comfortable in which model, and even produced two shoe models in a wide “H” fitting which the man could also wear.  If I thought that his knowledge was good before, now it appeared encyclopaedic.  He was like a magician, producing shoes and styles that the man/customer could wear.

I really enjoyed watching this great piece of service in action and the customer was obviously pleased.  The punch-line is that Ian is a young guy, and it was inspiring to see a young man who was so proud of his product and of an English craft tradition.     

And that is why we buy from these great shoemakers like Church’s.  The shoes are beautiful and beautifully made and with care will last a very long time.  But it is the service, their willingness to find the shoe that really suits you, that makes buying these shoes such a special experience.  You know you have got the right shoe and that alone is worth the purchase.

Hats off to Church’s for their shoes and their service!

Details:

Church Shoes (Canary Wharf Branch)

Cabot Place East, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4QT

Phone 44 (0)20 7538 9730

Email: london.canarywharf@church-footwear.com  

Website: www.church-footwear.com

 Happy Birthday Nicholas Van Rijn                   

Well, no-one knows the real birthday of Poul Anderson’s glorious swashbuckler, but today is St Dismas day and as Nick Van Rijn’s patron saint was St Dismas, it is appropriate to honour him on this day. 

Nick Van Rijn is the larger-than-life hero of Poul Anderson’s stories and novels of the merchant trading league of space, the Polesotechnic league.  He is big, brash, bold and clever.  As Anderson describes him, Van Rijn is of mixed Indonesian and Dutch descent, has black ringletted hair and a stylish goatee.  He is big, with a full round belly that covers a lot of solid muscle.  He dresses expensively but carelessly, more concerned with life than appearance.  

Van Rijn’s love of life is legendary, he always has a drink and is never drunk.  He admires beautiful women and more importantly, he can see the beauty in all women.  He is Rabelaisian and has a pedigree that goes back to Shakespeare’s Falstaff.  He knows that good food and good company help us suffer the difficult times that we all must pass through.       

Poul Anderson has given us a paean of praise to the big man.  Men, remember that the big man can have style.  A big man with style and personality can fill a room with his presence.  Women are drawn to him for his warmth and the security of his company.  Never underestimate the style of big men.  Think Orson Welles, Peter Ustinov, Phillip Seymour Hoffman.   

Van Rijn is smart, wealthy and brave.  He is the magician in every man, able to turn the world to his benefit.  He is also the warrior, because regardless of how smart he is, he knows that what changes the world is action.  Thinking and talking set the scene, but only action will make a difference in the world.  Van Rijn is the smart man as action hero.  A man can learn from Nick Van Rijn.

Poul Anderson wrote several books of Nick Van Rijn’s adventures. Here is a link to the Poul Anderson entry on Wikipedia, which lists them.

Grenson Shoes

Just a short post to mention how pleased I am with everyone at Grenson shoes.  Grenson are an old English shoemaker (founded in 1866) who produce beautiful mens shoes.  I have many pairs of Grenson’s, I like the way they hold their style and shape and are very well-made.

This post is in praise of their factory and their new range of shoes. 

Firstly I want to show you a picture of a pair of Grenson Commando town-boots that I just had repaired.  The boots came back looking like new and they are nine years old!  Grenson’s craftsmen made a superb job of repairing them. 

I have several pairs of these town-boots and they are comfortable, hardwearing and smart enough to wear to work in my Banking day job.  What is particularly good about them is they have a shock-absorbent layer above the sole, which makes them comfortable to wear, even over long periods. 

Grenson no longer sell this exact model, but they sell a similar boot in their “Sharp” and “Bleasdale” ranges.    

While I was having the shoes repaired in Grenson’s new shop I spent some time looking at their new range.  Grenson have invested heavily in modern designs to complement their quality crafted manufacturing.  As a result the new range is strikingly stylish, with lots of italian flair and distinctive hides.  There are some particularly good styles in marbled calf, suitable for work, yet stylish enough for leisure (and anyone who works in the City of London knows that one can follow the other very quickly).

I bought a pair of Walsgraves’ (Walsgrave, Grenson Style NO. 6643) because I liked the long shape, the dark chestnut/red of the marbled calf and the high narrow bridge.  Here is a picture:

I wore these shoes for the first time yesterday, with a navy blue Italian (Corneliani) suit.  They complemented the suit perfectly and like every pair of Grensons I have owned they were immediately comfortable. 

Grenson’s new shop is tiny but they have packed the space with some really good-looking shoes.  If you are within striking distance of the shop, go and have a look.  The smiling fellow below is Keith, the manager of the store, next to a picture of the Grenson factory in Northants. Keith knows his shoes inside out, and provides an excellent service.  If you want some help with shoes, he is your man.

If you cannot get to the shop, Grenson’s website is below.  Alternately, the Natural Shoe Store (see below for details) stocks some of the Grenson range.     

I will write more on Grenson another time but for now put them on your list of classic shoe makers.     

Details:

Grenson

The Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool Street, London, EC2M 7QN

Tel:     44 (0)20 7618 5050

http://www.grenson.co.uk/

Natural Shoe Store

21 Neal Street, Covent garden, London, WC2H 9PU

Tel:     44 (0)20 7836 5254

www.thenaturalshoestore.com  

Alfred Dunhill Spring-Summer collection

Regular readers of my blog will know that I consider Alfred Dunhill to be a stylish brand par excellence.  I have written about  Alfred Dunhill before and when American friends ask me which brands exemplify modern English style, Alfred Dunhill is high on my list.  So I was pleased to be invited to their Spring-Summer collection launch.

In my view Alfred Dunhill have really re-invigorated their brand over the last few years.  For me the most exciting part of that has been the distinctive styling of their men’s clothes collections.  So here are some highlights of what I saw.    

Alfred Dunhill bespoke shirt service

Alfred Dunhill’s bespoke shirt service was on display and their irrepressible master shirtmaker David Gale was holding court. 

 The bespoke shirt service is a bit of a Dunhill secret, until recently its reputation has spread mostly by word of mouth.  The shirt making service is only available on the London store and is by appointment only. 

The bespoke shirt making team use their extensive experience to help customers create the best possible shirts.  They start by asking the customers how he wants to use the shirts, are they for work, for leisure, for a special occasion?  They ask about his wardrobe, how he wants his shirts to complement his other clothes.  They match colours to skin tones, facial shapes to collar types.  They can get collar sizes and tie knots into proportion.

In a single appointment, the team can measure a customer, help them select fabrics, colours, textures and collars and set to making the shirt.  All this is done in the store’s luxurious fitting room.

Once the shirt is made, the customer tries the shirt on under the eye of the master shirt maker.  If the shirt needs any final touches they are done on the spot, while the customer waits.  The customer then takes the shirt and wears it.  However the shirt making service does not stop there.  The shirt making team recommend that the shirt is worn and washed two or three times to ensure that it is a perfect fit.  If the shirt needs any alteration at this point, the customer simply brings it back and the shirt is altered on the spot. 

Alfred Dunhill’s bespoke shirt team pride themselves on providing a service of exceptional quality and certainly their process is both highly professional and produces beautiful shirts.  The minimum order for a Dunhill bespoke shirt is one (one shirt) and there are over 2,000 shirt fabrics to choose from.  The cost of a shirt starts at around £200, depending on the fabric chosen. 

I asked David about my own experience with bespoke shirts, which was that as I got older I found that heavier fabrics, like oxford cottons, suited me better than the lighter fabrics, the 140 and 160 weight cottons.  David confirmed my experience, telling me that when we are younger our bodies are of course fitter and we carry lighter fabrics better than as we age.  As men get older, they look better in heavier, more structured shirts.  

 The bespoke shirt service carries two-fold cottons in a wide range of fabric weights, from 120’s through to 200’s.  Many customers opt for the heavier fabrics but the bespoke service also make many shirts in the finer cottons, the 180s and the 200’s, which are ideal for hot and tropic climates.    

Alfred Dunhill custom-made leather

Leather goods are one of the luxury products that most folk think of when they think of Alfred Dunhill. Dunhill has its own custom leather studio where it is possible to have exquisitely beautiful personalised leather goods make to order. 

The studio has a range of wallets, billfolds, briefcases, satchels and prochettes (men’s bags), all of which can be made up in a range of fine leathers and other hides, with one of a wide range of linings.  It is easy, pick your style, pick your leather, pick your lining and Dunhill’s own craftsman will produce a finely crafted wallet or bag of superb quality. 

All of the wallets, billfolds and bags can be embossed during their manufacturer, making it possible to create a truly personalized item.  This is an easy and stylish way to create a perfect gift for almost any man. 

Now you may not be an expert on leather.  But even here Dunhill can help you.  The head of the custom leather studio is Cyrille Pinon, who is charming, stylish and very wise.  That’s him in the picture above and he can help you create the ideal gift, just ask him. 

Alfred Dunhill Suits

Alfred Dunhill have had an amazing renaissance as a quality English brand and for me the sheer style and quality of their suits is one of the keys to this rebirth.  Four years ago, Dunhill menswear was relaunched with the assistance of Saville Row tailor Richard James, who helped design the new Dunhill menswear style. Currently, Alfred Dunhill’s design is now conducted exclusively in-house.

To Richard James lighter colour palette, Alfred Dunhill have since added rich darker colours to their lightweight wool suits.  These are suits that define themselves as powerful and authoritative.  Wearing one of these suits says that you have style and know your way in the world.  The darker colours give a fine sleek manly silhouette, whilst the lighter suits have a silky glamour, very much a film premier, champagne party, kind of look.

Buy these suits if you want something special, a business suit that will work after work, play as well as business, a suit that gives you presence.  Dunhill suits radiate style with an Anglo Italian twist, a cut which makes them entirely distinctive.  The current range includes the Dunhill interpretation of the three piece suit, now back in vogue.  Dunhill have cleverly used very light flannels and wools to make the three-piece look slim and sharp.

Dunhill have also released a new range of suits with a slightly tighter, slightly shorter cut.  Slightly more edgy, slightly less classic, these suits are striking, bold and have a younger look to them.    

Dunhill have both ready-to wear and a custom made-to-measure service in store. So shopping for a suit here gives a man some real choices and head of menswear Luke O’Hea and his staff will help you make them. 

At the moment the London store has a special offer on its custom made-to-measure service, for every suit ordered before the 20^th March, a second pair of pair of trousers will be made for free.  

The Alfred Dunhill “signature”

As with the suits, everything in Dunhill has the feel of being a one-off, distinctive, well-crafted, pleasing to the eye and touch.  This distinction is what lies at the heart of the new Dunhill, its ability to touch its illustrious past and capture the look and feel of individual quality and yet be completely of the moment.  So much of what is sold here are signature pieces.  They are distinctive and stylish and have a timeless quality about them. 

Certainly a man could put together a Dunhill “look”, there is a kind of Pygmalion quality about this store that would enable him to do that.  One could enter and be outfitted with everything, clothes, luggage, jewellery, that a stylish well-dressed man needs.  However, one could equally enter the store and buy a single piece, a suit or a jacket, which would have real character and always remain classy and classic.   

Alfred Dunhill Service

What raises Dunhill to the list of truly great luxury brands, is the service.  The staff embody Dunhill’s style, being both individual and elegant.  They are really well-informed and will do their utmost to help.  My own experience is that they form real relationships with their customers and help them get the very best from Dunhill. 

Dunhill are producing exciting menswear, leather and men’s jewellery and have become one of the most stylish modern brands in London.  Go see for yourself, this is a great store, with great style.

Details: 

Alfred Dunhill

48 Jermyn Street, St James, London, SW1Y 6DL 

Tel:      44 (0)845 458 0779  

Website: www.dunhill.com

Head of Menswear:                                  Luke O’Hea

Head of custom Leather Goods:               Cyrille Pinon

Master Shirt Maker:                                  David Gale      

(Free second pair of trousers with each custom made-to-measure suit offer ends 20^th March)