A Gem in New York: Leffot

For such a large (and stylish) city, New York is curiously devoid of good men’s shoe shops. Most of the well-known European brands have outlets here - Berluti, JM Weston, Church’s - but there is little variation outside of that. Unlike London, there is no proliferation of great, local shops (Cleverley, Foster & Son). Even Paris, historically the second string to London for menswear, has some wonderful shoemakers such as Aubercy that do not sell anywhere else.

In New York, variation is limited to the high-end department stores. Their lines vary, stopping and starting with little warning (example: Lidfort at Barney’s). And they’re all up town.

For all these reasons, Leffot (pronounced le-fot) is a breath of fresh air. Located on Christopher Street in the west Village, it has only been running for a month. But the stock is impressive. It carries Aubercy (previously only available in Paris), Gaziano & Girling (only Hawaii in the US), Corthay (only Bergdorf Goodman in NY), Artioli (Baldini and Saks in NY), Edward Green (only relabeled at Ralph Lauren) and the more widely available Church’s and JM Weston.

With five to seven styles in each, the range is not vast. Such is the limited volume of some of these lines that as soon as one line sells out, it takes five months to order more in. One Gaziano & Girling order was delayed because the man who did the hand-stitching on one type of shoe was ill, putting back the delivery time by two weeks. But the range is well chosen - I dare anyone to contend there isn’t something for them, from the chunky, storm welted, double-soled Church’s to the ultra-slim and pointy Artiolis.

Being downtown enables Leffot to carry a more eclectic range of shoes styles and colours. Apparently JM Weston’s best-selling colour uptown is black, despite the tans, reds and even greens on offer. Downtown, black sits in dowdy last place. In fact, Steven Taffel, the personable and welcoming owner of Leffot, tells of one man and his wife who wandered in looking for inspiration. Despite being a conservative, office-bound gentleman, he ended up buying the more extreme pointed Artiolis, as “he already had black oxfords and wore them all week. He wanted something different, something exciting.”

It’s certainly hard not to be excited by the Corthay two-tone shoes in tan calf and brown suede, or the tapered, beveled waist of the Gaziano & Girling shoes. A favourite of The Sartorialist as well, it’s hard not to see this store succeeding. But just to be on the safe side, let’s troop down there and support a start-up company.

P.S. If it’s still there when you go, have a look at the copy of Japanese magazine Last that’s on display. It has step-by-step instructions on how to re-heel your shoes, demonstrates the value of polishing a shoe with champagne, and still has room for better photo shoots than you’ll find in any UK or US magazine. They need to launch an international (read English) version. Now.

Windows on a Designer’s Mind

Window dressing performs a very different function in men’s and women’s clothing stores. In a women’s shop, its primary purpose is to showcase items that the store contains. It seeks to shows that its pieces are attractive and possibly unique.

This is not the purpose of a display in a men’s store. While there may be one or two items that attract you for their originality, the pieces will generally be too similar to those on offer in other stores to stand out entirely. Rather, it is there to display the creative intelligence of the men who designed the clothes and the brand.

The clothes are being bought for their cloth and their cut; for the subtle things that make one blue blazer infinitely preferable to another. The fact that the clothes inside excel in these areas is best displayed through the colour and texture combinations in the window. It is this that should take you inside.

Inditex, the Spanish group that owns Massimo Dutti, Zara, Pull & Bear and others, understands this all to well. No matter what the quality of Zara clothes may be, the central planners at Inditex HQ make sure that you are lured inside by the combinations, even if they are a pretty stark variation on black suits, white shirts and skinny ties.

Massimo Dutti is even better. Consciously aiming for an older audience, its Mediterranean colours and linen combinations in the summer are almost inspiring. I’ve often felt forced to record some particular detail (green silk with a tan linen suit, a purple handkerchief with a blue blazer) that I would otherwise forget and never remember to use myself.

Ralph Lauren is of course a past master at this, and staff often refer to the detailed descriptions they are given of how to dress mannequins, both inside and outside the store. (It’s all about the pop colout!) By contrast, Armani windows are often startlingly bland. They persist in using almost two-dimensional mannequins, which the suits hang off rather than drape. Anyone who has been forced to put a suit jacket on a wire hanger will be able to imagine the unflattering effect.

Armani mannequins also seem to be uniformly grey, no matter what the season. And as with many other bad window dressers, they consider it needless to keep ties done up, let alone taut.

But let’s concentrate on the good dressers. Hackett is often very good, and this season features ingenious combinations of Safari-themed outfits – a buff, linen, double-breasted waistcoat with a grey suit, for example. In New York, Bergdorf Goodman rarely puts a foot wrong, and it’s worth the trip uptown just to browse the windows. Doriani is also very good – as the double-breasted blazer opposite demonstrates.

In fact, this picture is a perfect example. All the items are plain, basic, classic. But the combination is exciting. It’s not that unusual; you may have seen something similar before, or feel you should have done. But the beautiful sculpture of it ushers you inside, convinced that everything the store sells will be of the best cloth and cut. It is creative intelligence on display.

P.S. Plaudits also for Domenico Vacca in New York, which seems to accentuate the beauty of already lovely shoes by tucking a different coloured sock or tie inside each. How the accent of lime-green sock brings out a chestnut oxford I don’t know, but it works.

Balancing the Dandified and the Formal

Much of what a man considers appropriate or pleasant to wear is dependent on his circumstances and taste. But there are still rules or guidelines that can govern what he should wear. The key is to formulate a rule that includes the individual’s taste and circumstances into the equation – as a variable that is different for each man, if you will.

The best such rule is: A man should be as formal as the occasion requires, and as dandified as it allows.

This is a simple rule but more useful than one might think. It urges you to first consider what formality your day requires, and therefore ensures you never look out of place or overdressed. And then it suggests you consider what dandification (read flamboyance, peculiarities, sartorial quirks) it can bear, ensuring you are never bored by your outfit nor miss an opportunity to experiment.

It also, perhaps obviously, varies for any man in any context. If you feel that your age, seniority in the workplace or reputation affect how much dandification your day allows, this will become part of the equation.

Dandification itself is best considered to revere tradition, yet contain a persistent air of risk. To quote Nicholas Antongiavanni: “While often unusual, the dandified always follows the classic rules of dress, or else is based on a judicious breaking of those rules. It is never costume – not spats and ascots, but waistcoats and handkerchiefs. Yet there is always some risk in wearing what is dandified, unless you have so much reputation that a certain eccentricity, even extravagance, is taken to be your due.”

So how much risk does the occasion allow? That is another way to read the second half of this rule.

Another observation on dandification worth making is that, unlike formality, it is not reinforced by the presence of similar items. While there is some balance to be achieved in having, say, a slightly unusual belt in order to draw attention from rather unique shoes, most of the time striking garments achieve their greatest effect in subdued surroundings.

As hinted at in a previous posting on this site, Jeeves and Bertie Wooster are a good model for this formal/dandified balance. While much of what Bertie favours is over the top, you wouldn’t want to look like Jeeves all the time if you could help it. Despite Jeeves obviously being constrained by the proper uniform of a valet (a gentleman’s gentleman, as Jeeves would say), it seems unlikely that he breaks out in yellow checks and bright knitted ties when off duty.

“Therefore, a man cannot follow the predilections of Jeeves, lest he end up looking like an undertaker, nor can he in all things imitate Wooster without coming off like a riverboat gambler” (Antongiavanni). The same rule, in different words.

How to Buy Luxury: Globetrotter

No one makes nice luggage anymore. Suitcases are usually plastic, bulbous and age badly. They’re black, or possibly silver. There is little possibility for using something you particularly like, or you can get the remotest joy in using.

If it’s a weekend bag you’re after, there’s plenty of choice. Mulberry is always a staple – I recommend their scotch grain range. Bown makes beautiful bags – particularly the overnight cabin bag. In fact, almost anyone that makes lovely leather items can do you a good weekend bag.

But there’s nothing like the same range in suitcases. Even Mulberry’s cases look like they have little to do with the soft, malleable leather of the smaller bags. They are awkward, largely made of a woven fabric with leather detailing. The recently launched Samsonite Black Label range is similar – despite high design, their best feature is a lime-green lining. Little on the outside really appeals.

The problem is leather. It is too heavy for a suitcase, but no one quite knows what an attractive alternative would be. Louis Vuitton suitcases are made with canvas. This is lighter but still not so light you could carry it around for any length of time. They were designed, after all, for the age when porters carried your cases for you everywhere. (Plus a decent size will cost £3,000 and everyone will think it’s fake anyway.)

Fortunately, I recently stumbled across Globetrotter. Its suitcases are made with vulcanized board – essentially compressed paper with a protective coating. They are therefore light, while been famously strong: a famous old stunt featured an elephant from London Zoo balancing on top of one.

What’s more, Globetrotter fulfils all my criteria for buying luxury. It is built for longevity. It is something I will use often (I probably travel on business an average of eight times a year). And it has a history behind it: it was founded in 1897; Queen Elizabeth took it on honeymoon; it was used in the first ascent of Everest; and Churchill carried a Globetrotter briefcase.

It also seems to have wasted little money on advertising. The website is slick (globe-trotterltd.com), but few people have heard of it. The store, just off Bond Street, is nice but small and personal. So you can rest assured that your purchase is not funding a huge branding exercise.

Like any luxury item of worth, the company has an easy system for quickly repairing and refurbishing. They are happy if you only ever buy one.

On the more frivolous side, they also come in a fantastic array of colours, from orange with brown leather to blue with white, from red with tan to cream with yellow.

The Original range offers the best value for money, with a decently sized suitcase starting at £350. For more leather straps and leather corners (Centenary) you pay disproportionately more, as you do for the Safari range, which just offers another two colours. If you do take a liking to the leather straps, I recommend buying one or two separately. They cost £25 each, which is a lot less than the step up to Centenary.

A Modern Ascot

I’d like to wear an ascot, but I just can’t. Outside of a wedding or a trip to Ascot, I’d have trouble pulling it off. I have, however, found something that is near enough to be satisfying without being too flamboyant.

The two keys to making this work are colour and collar. The colour needs to be dark and with a subtle, dark pattern if any. The collar should be non-existent: I wear it with a sweater or t-shirt rather than a shirt. On the v-neck of a shirt, even a polo shirt, it looks too forced. As with braces, white suits and most hats, it’s very hard to wear at my age without looking silly.

So, the new ascot. It is a short, dark blue scarf in silk, which I found accidentally in a vintage shop for about £5. No more than two feet long and four inches wide. It is worn in place of a scarf on more summery days like today, tied once and tucked into the front of a round-necked cotton sweater.

I have a long neck, and so collars generally are a good thing – polo shirts rather than t-shirts; shirts themselves above all. The short silk scarf, however, adds some needed height and weight to the neck of a sweater.

I prefer a dark colour and pattern, because again it makes the outfit a little less flamboyant. This is of course an entirely personal decision, but given the recent results of the Menswear Poll it seems most readers are more conservative than me if anything; so my dark blue neckerscarf with black graphic pattern is probably more likely to appeal than a yellow polka-dot version.

Again, my aim was to take a little-worn item and bring it into my wardrobe in some way. I would draw a parallel with woollen handkerchiefs – something I find far easier to wear with non-formal outfits than silk handkerchiefs. It is more muted, and subtle, but undeniably there.

One problem. Aside from a discovery in a vintage shop in York, I have yet to find a silk scarf of similar size. Has anyone seen something similar being sold as new? It strikes me as something that Dunhill or Aquascutum might carry, but I could only find regular, pre-folded ascots in their stores.

Any reports of sightings would be appreciated. In the meantime, I encourage you to scour the vintage shops and try out this suggestion with your best summer-weight sweater.