For those of you that wear oxfords, wingtips, brogues casually.... help?

[Lucky Strike]

Originally Posted by j

The more beat up they are, the easier it will be to wear them with jeans and casually. I don't mean not cared for, but well worn and polished tends to look better than a brand new shiny pair of dress shoes for very casual use. And heavier construction, to a point, is usually better. You don't want those very thin soled, glued together Italian looking ones - better a little heavier English or American double-soled version, at least until you get the swing of it.
+1. I think exactly the same way.

 

[thinman]

vvoc, if you're serious about antiquing shoes, see this thread:

http://www.styleforum.net/showpost.p...5&postcount=23

You can also get an oxblood color by starting with a tan or light brown colored shoe and using red or cordovan shoe _cream_ before waxing (I prefer red, since you can always darken them, but it's very hard to make shoes lighter without stripping the finish and starting from scratch). Then, I use cordovan wax to polish my shoes to give them a reddish tint that develops over time. I do this with almost all of my brown and black shoes to give them interesting tints.

 

[cultpop 0217]

got these wingtips at the salvation army for $2. most would say they are too dressy with skinny jeans but i think the juxtapostion makes it work.

 

[vvoc]

ok guys, so i just received the shoes... i purchased a pair of johnston murphy crown aristocraft wingtips in a burgandy/oxblood color for $40 from ebay...

ok so your opinions...what should i do with them? just clean them and wear them? antique them? do anything special? im leaning towards antiquing them, but in your opinions what should i do, antique only the toe and heel? or the entire shoe? i also havent seen many pictures of burgandy/oxblood colored shoes antiqued, i think im only going to do the heel and toe...just to review are these the correct steps for antiquing: 1) Clean shoe 2) Create a mixture of black and red colored shoe cream and apply to entire shoe (being more liberal on the toe and heel) 3) Let dry over night 4) Use a wax polish to strip the cream off (but this step i dont understand...do i strip it off the entire shoe, or what?) sound about right? if anything is off or wrong, please help, thanks!!

 

[j]

I personally don't subscribe to that method. I don't think the layer of shoe cream works very well for most people. If I wanted to antique those, here's what I'd do.

-Strip the whole shoe with acetone, scrubbing especially hard on the parts I wanted to change color (toe and counters [sides of heel leather])

-Use shoe cream on the parts I wanted darker - mix burgundy with dark blue and black. Rub in, let dry a few minutes, buff off. Repeat a couple times.

-Polish shoes with various colors of polish - burgundy for most of it, some blue, some dark brown, maybe black. Buff after each color.

-See what you get, then repeat various steps until you get what you want. If you want them crazier, consider scuffing them on purpose with fine grit sandpaper, maybe using bleach, etc. Do a search, people have done ridiculous stuff to shoes on this forum.

Edit: caution - this will "damage" and irreparably change the finish of the shoes. Just so you know. I've done it to a bunch of shoes now, but I have had some practice. Do this at your own risk.

 

[vvoc]

any pictures of the final outcome? i dont know if i want to take acetone to the shoe... doesnt that strip the color too? hmmm i dont know, this is my first time and i dont feel too confident, dont want to **** up... if your after pics are REALLY nice and something i like, ill prob consider using the acetone...

 

[j]

Find the recent thread in Men's Clothing called "changing shoe color" or something like that. I posted some links in there.

Acetone, in my experience, will not immediately start stripping color. You can try it on a crap pair of shoes from a thrift shop first if you want, but I don't think there's really much danger in wiping the whole shoe down with it lightly. It really only takes color off if you scrub relatively hard with it.

If you don't want to use it, start with rubbing alcohol, which will not take color off, just to get rid of any polish that's on there, and then start from the second step. The acetone just seems to help everything else soak in much better.

 

[vvoc]

ok so i read that thread and apparently the acetone strips away color most from the hard parts of the shoe you said (the toe and heel) but i want to make the shoe darker in those positions....is that wear the shoe cream comes in, to darken those specific parts and since the acetone helps the cream abosrb it gets darker?

i really have no other shoes to test this on, so its gotta be perfect the first time...

so are these the steps:

1) clean shoe
2) wipe shoe with acetone (not too hard, gently)
3) add the mixture of black/red shoe cream (the entire shoe, correct?)
4) allow to dry overnight
5) polish the shoe, especially hard in the toe, heel area?

is that about right... thanks

 

[j]

Originally Posted by vvoc

ok so i read that thread and apparently the acetone strips away color most from the hard parts of the shoe you said (the toe and heel) but i want to make the shoe darker in those positions....is that wear the shoe cream comes in, to darken those specific parts and since the acetone helps the cream abosrb it gets darker? i really have no other shoes to test this on, so its gotta be perfect the first time... so are these the steps: 1) clean shoe 2) wipe shoe with acetone (not too hard, gently) 3) add the mixture of black/red shoe cream (the entire shoe, correct?) 4) allow to dry overnight 5) polish the shoe, especially hard in the toe, heel area? is that about right... thanks
Yes, the shoe cream will absorb more if you rub off more of the finish, but that's not necessary. Just wipe the shoe down with acetone or alcohol to get rid of any polish that's on there. Then rub the dark mixed shoe cream into the parts you want darker, and try to blend it a bit with the parts you don't. Let it dry briefly, then buff it off, then repeat a couple times if you want, buffing each time. Don't let it build up. Then polish with various colors of wax polish, darker where you want it darker.

 

[vvoc]

so i dont rub the cream on the entire shoe? just the parts that i want darker? but i rub the acetone on the entire shoe?

this is a list of the supplies im going to buy/use:

acetone, black shoe cream, red shoe cream, black polish (anything else?)

should i condition the leather or anything? also when u say buff, just go at it with a rag? or is there a specific technique, sorry for the dumb questions, just want to get everything right. thanks for all the help, hopefully everything turns out well!

 

[Superb0bo]

I would just wear those. Looks good. After you get some more wear on them, you can start thinking of ******* them up with aceton...

 

[j]

You could use shoe cream on the whole shoe if you want, after stripping. I would only use the color of the shoe on the parts you don't want to change, though. If I were you I'd buy burgundy and black cream (and maybe blue), and burgundy, black and probably blue polish. I really like the way blue polish and cream changes brown and burgundy leather, but it's subjective.

For polishing technique, basically you rub polish on (I use a rag that's made out of t-shirt material), let it sit a while, then brush it off with a shoe brush (which you should also buy, you'll use it a lot) or buff it with a soft cloth. If you want a mirror shine to the toe and heel (I wouldn't, on these) there is a wiki article that explains it well. http://styleforum.pbwiki.com/MirrorShine

 

[skalogre]

Originally Posted by vvoc

any pictures of the final outcome? i dont know if i want to take acetone to the shoe... doesnt that strip the color too? hmmm i dont know, this is my first time and i dont feel too confident, dont want to **** up... if your after pics are REALLY nice and something i like, ill prob consider using the acetone...

This is a pair I had stripped/lightened with acetone then patinated...
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9158/loding8qr.jpg
Their colour was different intially, I did not like it much. It was VERY similar to this shoe of gdl203's (down to the polished toe).

 

[vvoc]

for the polishing... do i mix the different colors with each other like i would with the shoe creams? or would i do them seperately, if seperately, what order?

just to finally clear things up, i acetone the entire shoe, i use cream on the entire shoe and i polish the entire shoe? thanks again

 

[j]

Polish - don't mix it. Do one color, buff, then another color, etc. Or, you could do one color on one part, another color on another part, etc., then buff. It doesn't do much in one round anyway, so you'll be able to adjust by re-polishing over time.

Cream - use the color of the shoe on the parts you don't want to change.
Use the darker mix on the parts you do want to change. Rub in, let dry a few minutes, then buff. Repeat if you want.