Australian Members

[Oli2012]

I'm starting a job where a suit is required. Therefore need black shoes.

Ah.

They'd work, but a decent pair of black cap oxfords and brown brogues* would work much better.


*To all those SFers out there I know this isn't their technical term but it may as well be as far as the general public is concerned.

 

[fxh]

Ha a truckload of spam on SF all about Australian rugby on TV or something

 

[boff]



Can anyone comment on the Loake 1880 sizing? I'm interested in the Aldwych or any other suggestions for work wear.
I am cursed with a 13, slightly narrow (c/d) on a Brannock and I have some Florsheims in a 47EE, which is their only width and is a bit too wide. I also have some MTO RMW which probably aren't real helpful for comparison.

Any experiences out there or other suggestions from the Loake range I should consider?

I'm a 9.5D UK or 10.5C US and the Loake 1880 Savoy's I bought are too wide, but OK to wear with an insert. They are on the Mayfair last.

 

[smeggett]

Not here, well not anymore.

When I was with Fletcher Jones some 10+ years back now the then owner Ted Dimmick (now deceased) owned some of the last remaining mills in Australia to do essentially the same thing, control the process etc (no idea where the wool was farmed though). This is when stuff was still made in Warnambool too so less miles sending wool/fabric around the place. Costs were too high in the end and it's likely cheaper to actually weave it somewhere like Italy and have a brand name like VBC or whatever attached to the cloth..

Figured that would be the case. I'm still amazed that Italian costs are (still) as low as they are. Back in the late ninetys or early naughties, I was talking to a sales rep from Balcombe Flanges (based in Melbourne) and (whilst totally unrelated to anything remotely sartorial) he told me that their company could buy finished flanges drilled to whatever flange pattern (ANSI, Table D, E, F, etc) from Italy (made pretty much by cottage industry over there) cheaper than they could buy flange blanks (i.e. a round piece of metal) over here from local manufacturers.

Kind of scary when one thinks about it, especially when cheap manufacturing from China wasn't part of the equation back then as it is now.

 

[Gerry Nelson]

Ah.

They'd work, but a decent pair of black cap oxfords and brown brogues* would work much better.


*To all those SFers out there I know this isn't their technical term but it may as well be as far as the general public is concerned.

Both are brown brogues but only the lacing is different:

 

[boff]



Sorry I am a traditionalist I prefer Moleskine, actually been using one excessively the past week so tomorrow I have to sit with and then type it all up into narrative form.

The pedant in me needs to point out that Moleskin was dreamt up in 1997 whereas Leuchttrum1917 has been around since, er, 1917.

It amazes me how they managed to sucker in people to believe they are writing in the same make/model of notebook Hemingway used.

 

[AriGold]



ya - me in my beige linen below we have white, oatmeal, beige, brown, navy, black and a few more Italian linen 300g/sq I can source Irish linen via Ariston too however i personally think too heavy for Aus

wow that looks good - how about a linen blend, something that's appropriate for a formal business environment for summer? anyone else here with experience in linen suits they'd like to share?

 

[Oli2012]

Both are brown brogues but only the lacing is different:

But when you say 'oxford' most people think these:



And when you say 'bals' nobody knows what you're talking about.

And when you say 'opened and closed lacing' PoP, GF and FXH go into an enormous anthropological/shoelogical spiel until the nurses at the old folks home give them their meds.

So as brogues have brogue holes in them, its just easier to say 'brogues'.

 

[Foxhound]

Aside from some potential for niche high tech fabric manufacturing for parachutes, racing sails etc. (low volume, manufacturing-on-demand is probably the most sustainable model even here) the textile industry in Aus is, sadly, as good as dead I think.

I'll have to ask my grandfather what it was like when he was in it. After my grandparents came to Australia with my Dad in 1956, and managed to get themselves on their feet, they owned a couple of textile factories during the 70s up until a few years prior to my birth in the early 90s.

 

[fxh]

Oli, you OK there? No local Motoring Enthusiasts Party policy analysis meeting on tonight?

Open lacing or closed lacing are simple, descriptive and accurate terms for types of lacing/vamps arrangement s. Why use other confusing and non consensual terms.

 

[Oli2012]

Oli, you OK there? No local Motoring Enthusiasts Party policy analysis meeting on tonight?

Open lacing or closed lacing are simple, descriptive and accurate terms for types of lacing/vamps arrangement s. Why use other confusing and non consensual terms.

DLP or GTFO.

I don't see an open/closed lace differentiation as relevant - open lacing can be just as elegant as closed (e.g. C&J Brunswick) and some people simply can't wear closed laces comfortably.

The difference for most will be the colour and upper design (i.e. brogueing) which can go from a suit to khakis in formality.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]



The pedant in me needs to point out that Moleskin was dreamt up in 1997 whereas Leuchttrum1917 has been around since, er, 1917.

It amazes me how they managed to sucker in people to believe they are writing in the same make/model of notebook Hemingway used.

The post modernist in me was more impressed by the fact that Bruce Chatwin used them the original product.

Two sized journals I use are practical for my specific needs.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]



Ha a truckload of spam on SF all about Australian rugby on TV or something

"Sport is the opiate of the masses" Karl Marx

 

[boff]



The post modernist in me was more impressed by the fact that Bruce Chatwin used them the original product.

Two sized journals I use are practical for my specific needs.

Score another for the Moleskin marketing team. Chatwin died almost ten years before they launched a notebook named after the nickname Chatwin gave to one if his notebooks. Appropriate I think, given Chatwin's liberal passing off of fiction as fact.

Not withstanding, Chatwin's books are ace and Moleskin make a nice notebook.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]



Score another for the Moleskin marketing team. Chatwin died almost ten years before they launched a notebook named after the nickname Chatwin gave to one if his notebooks. Appropriate I think, given Chatwin's liberal passing off of fiction as fact.

Not withstanding, Chatwin's books are ace and Moleskin make a nice notebook.

Really? And what are your academic qualifications?

The point is Moleskine make a 'nice' notebook, its practical and the Chinese ones I used in the 90's disappeared.