Bespoke Maftei In The Flesh!

A reader of the blog came in not too long ago, looking to say hi, have a quick shoe shine and try on a pair of my shoes. My last shapes (and widths) unfortunately did not agree with his feet, but luckily for my curiosity, I was finally able to see a pair of Maftei shoes in the flesh and was I thoroughly impressed by what I saw (not that I thought I wouldn’t be!). Like I said before, I have always quite liked the idea of a full, heavy looking shoe but that maintains its elegance, which is quite common of the makers of Eastern side of Europe. With this shoe in particular, I loved the fact that the reader chose to have a pin grain on the whole shoe as I really feel that pin/pebble grains are far too underutilized. I can understand that one theoretically would not wear it with the majority of suits (or any for that matter), but I think that the idea of pin/pebble grain used on a shoe makes for a great casually-smart shoe. I personally would pair it with just about everything outside of a lightweight suit, but that is just me and my nature of breaking/bending the rules…. Nevertheless, the shoe was beautifully made, well-proportioned and to top it all off, had a lovely classic shape to it. A good first impression and now I look forward to seeing more!

On a separate note, to all you Londoners, a good friend of mine just opened his first establishment: a lovely French Bakery in Pimlico. If you are ever around Victoria or the likes and fancy a nice coffee or some delicious French pastries, check out Quartiers on Warwick way…..