The last time that I was in Paris, as I usually do, I found myself hanging about the Septieme Largeur shop, seeing what was new and exciting. While there, the owner Mr. Marcos Fernandez, was telling me of a shoe design that he was working on and that it would be something that I had never seen before. As you can imagine, I was incredibly intrigued by the notion of “something I had never seen before” and was therefore quite excited to know what it was, almost having a bit of disbelief as I have spent countless hours of my life looking at shoes. So the other day, Marcos emails me and tells me to brace myself, as his project was done and was about to send me some pictures of the results. Needless to say, I was blown away by what he did send me. A triple buckle monk strap balmoral boot. I mean, really, this is f***ing legendary!! It’s amazing, brilliant, beautiful and makes me incredibly envious. What a design and concept and he was right, I had never seen anything like it. I love every color but am particularly fond of the black/gray combo as well as the one in all brown suede….what a jean boot that would be!!
Marcos told me that this would be something that will be sitting in the front window of his shop, available for sale, within one months’ time…so for all those intrigued, start saving your money!
Well, anyway, I thought that you would either love or hate this so please feel free to bring the comments on!
If you have not yet RSVP’d to the J.FitzPatrick launch party, please check out the page above where you can see the link to the evite.
All the best,
Justin, “The Shoe Snob”
They are simply stunning!
There are some triple monkstrap boots around (not balmoral though), but indeed the design is awesome. The first ones (black leather and grey suede) are stunning.
And I was thinking to email you about the quality of Septieme Largeur compared to other similarly prices brands (Meermin for example).
John
GHASTLY! clearly playing to the iGent gallery with as many materials, straps, colours as possible .. appealing to the lowest common denomintor.
Sad to say I agree completely with the comment above. It’s novelty for its own sake and neither useful nor beautiful. A pity – the balmoral and chelsea boot versions that already exist are stunning.
Impressive design. I do not agree with the two comments above. Everyone now is making balmoral boots, there is no originality anymore it is just copy paste. Triple monk balmoral boot is fresh because never seen before.
Nice idea, although patterning wise they could have went for a one piece inside quater (cambré ou pivoté sur patron) to remove the stitch and turn… this way they would have been even more stunning, in my opinion of course.
Great blog, by the way!
best regards from France
papale .. a designer can make the same thing but by altering the line here or there, raising a section a slight amount can give a very differenct character to a shoe, compare a pair of edward green oxford cap toes to those made by another great maker like lobb and you will see what i mean. yes triple monk hasnt been done .. but adding some pointless novelty is crass in my opinion .. why not 4, 5 or 6 then?
i think as justin taste matures he will come to appreciate simple elegance and understand crazy colours, outlandish designs, bells and whistles are unnessary .. after all when you dress you dont want your shoes to overwhelm the overall look, its about balance. still the young have plenty of time to learn.
sdessE 19848
OwenB – I know, right?!!!
John B – funny enough, I had never seen one, or just did not notice it if I had….but yes, this one is lovely….finishing is slightly better on a Meermin, but other than that, comparable to me….but I only have one Meermin (the premium line one), can’t judge the lower end range… Ed Et Al at the price for me is the best….
Anon – I will go ahead and respond to both of your comments here…. Firstly, I can’t say that I agree with you whatsoever, not only with regards to your take on this boot (a bit exaggerated in my opinion) nor the fact that you believe that my taste in shoes/style will “mature”. I believe that this point has passed, as I have already matured from long, pointy Italian shoes with purple velour and onto more elegant goodyear-welted classic models in more plain colors. The thing is, is that I appreciate it all. There is a day that I feel like being classic, wearing a plain-jane black shoe and a day that I feel like being a bit more bold and wearing some two-tone lovelies. Never will there be a day that I only appreciate plain shoes with minimal character to them.
when talking about designers doing this versus that, I think that you are being rigid in your views, only seeing black/white and not all of the other possibilities, thinking that only the great, expensive shoe makers do good things, and everyone else is just rubbish….bah! “If you do three buckles you might as well do 6 then.” Give me a break man…sounds like you would simply have only cap toes about and no shoes with anything else outside of the lines of an austerity brogue….Sure when I hit 60 I might just think like this, but I am long way from that, and will undoubtedly appreciate unique design until then, such as triple monk bal boots!
Don’t get me wrong, I think that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and for you to express that they are not your thing or even that you absolutely hate them is just fine by me, but to say that they are only appealing to the lowest common denominator is simply rubbish…
Alex B – no need to be sad….but I can’t agree with you…novelty for the sake of it?? Not liking it is one thing but statements like that are another…everyone does novelty for the sake of it…the lazy man’s brogue…that shoe is crap yet people love it…it too is novelty (and laziness) for the sake of it….without novelty or people pushing “new” design, we would still all be wearing those horrible pumps with square metal buckles that the aristocracy wore in England and France back in the 1700’s…don’t you know that they scoffed at the idea of the shoes of today?….for me this statement is simply rigid thinking….
If you don’t like it, or even find it ugly, fair enough, who am I to say that you are wrong…
Papale – indeed….
Anon from France – Thanks for the kind words my friend… not sure what you were getting at with the one piece inside quarter idea however…with that i knew what you meant…
-Justin
The ones I’ve seen were from Alexander McQueen, probably that’s why you haven’t seen them (and just to clarify, I’m not implying they’re similar in craftmanship and quality, just saying the design has been around).
Thanks for your respone and keep up the good work. I’ve only recently discovered your blog and I’ve already learnt a lot!
How else should a monk boot of this height be exectued? Ankle height boots work well enough with two straps, but can anyone actually see a boot with all of that extra height in the vamp and quarters working with two straps? I can’t.
Quite right Justin, I’m just being a reactionary old git. I don’t like them.
I do, however, like lazyboy brogues, and I would not only wear the pink pony hair chukkas you suggested a while back, but possibly also the pumps with buckles on – fabulous!
Keep on pushing the boundaries my friend, it’s what keeps it fun. 🙂
On some quirky level these do work. I’ve never thought triple monks could be done in a way that’s not overtly tacky, and yet here they are: triple monks. Have you seen these in person yet, Justin?
John B – Ah okay, that makes sense…no worries, I wasn’t assuming that… Glad to hear that you have been enjoying the blog…thanks for the support!
Anon – well said…
Alex B – fair enough..
Ville – yes I have…they are beautiful….I want a pair!!
-Justin
I wear size 10.5 us. What size would I need to get for these boots?
their 9.5 size