Allen-Edmonds Cambridge Cordovan

I'd been looking at this pair of AE cordovan shoes for the past 12 months. To tell the truth I felt that the colour looked muddy (it looks nicer in these pictures than in reality) and I was unsure if the wing-tip brogue style was something I could wear (I wear jeans everyday, and everytime I tried the shoes on they looked slightly odd). So I hesitated for 12 months, and finally decided to get them since they're the only cordovan shoes that I've seen in Australia, and they were at a bargain price.

I guess that they'd been in the store a lot longer than 12 months since AE don't offer the Cambridge style shoe anymore. They also have a few scratches and dings from shop handling.

I noticed this strange white deposit on the tongue of the left shoe. Perhaps it's cocaine...

Anyway, the shoes are a burgundy colour. The edges have black piping which I don't think is cordovan. The waxed laces are a bit sticky. You can see the irregularity of the colouring on the cordovan pieces on this next pic.

The sole is quite stiff and thick, but I'm sure it will break-in over time.

I'm quite excited to see how these shoes age over time. The descriptions that I've read about shell cordovan are very impressive. The shoes will probably outlast this blog.

You can read about shell cordovan:

here

and here at horween

Furugiya (古着屋) (Update)

Recently I received a blog comment from Ethan over at the Ethandesu blog. He's got a great blog about some awesome clothing - his interests range into the very satorial. It's all very interesting stuff.

Anyway, Ethan dropped the Japanese term "Furugiya". I hadn't heard of this word before, so I did a bit of research:

Furugiya (古着屋)
Furugi (古着)

It seems to define second-hand clothing & vintage clothing. I'm trying to work out if the term can also be applied to replica clothing (ie. clothes which replicate vintage, but are brand new).

Post a comment if you can help with the definition.

---

Dan gave me a good Japanese lesson in the comments, so I'm adding it here so people don't miss out:

i think you probably figured out that "furu" means old and that "gi" means
clothing or outfit. you may have heard someone refer to their martial arts robe as a gi."ya" means shop: soba-ya, sushi-ya, tempura-ya, ramen-ya etc.

blah blah blah.

i think the term you're looking for with regard to reproductions is "furugi
no hukusei" which translates to "vintage looking". hukusei is reproduction.

in japanese: 古着の複製

Thanks Dan.

Makes me want to start my Japanese classes again.

"The Blues" Exhibition at the Textile Museum of Canada

The Textile Museum of Canada has an exhibition called "The Blues".



If you live in Toronto it might be worth a visit.
July 25 2007 - March 2 2008

Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Avenue, Toronto

Let us know what it's like.

Kaptial TP-2 Update

The Kapital denim is showing the affects of wear quite quickly, so I took a few pictures to try to show the fade. It's difficult to capture in a photo.

Inside the back right pocket is a label. I forgot to take a photo of this in my previous post.