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| Picture Courtesy of En Grande Pompe |
There is nothing like a nice adelaide. It fills all of the requirements of a nice brogue but for me just adds a bit of specialness having the facing as one piece instead of the full brogue (which I love too) that has all of the pieces that a shoe can have. Every now and then, you get a full brogue that just looks a bit too cluttered, too much detail involved. But the beauty of the adelaide is that by loosing the quarter line that goes from the facing down to the heel, you get a nice piece of clean leather that goes from vamp all the way to the heel. It allows for one to make it into another color, fabric or leather so easily and elegantly. The next shoe that I am designing is an adelaide (like the one that I did with G&G) and I am excited to see all of the crazy combinations that I can come up with. Matter of fact, I have one in the mix that I think that many of you will like, at least I think you will. Anyway, enough about me and more about the St. James by Gaziano & Girling. It’s a lovely version and the suede make up below almost makes me weep, especially as it’s on my favorite last, the DG70…… I get the feeling that the adelaide will one day be the leading brogue shoe, overtaking the full brogue….I could be talking bullshit, but the more that I see them the more that I like them, and from the fact that I see them more and more, it makes me feel that I am not the only one thinking this…..
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| Photo Courtesy of Style Forum |
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| Photo Courtesy of Zimmermann & Kim |
It is a real beauty – I look forward to seeing yours. I’m sure it will be a great style for your elegant last shape.
Incidentally, the suede one shown from SF isn’t the standard St James, it’s bespoke, so it’s a different shape from the normal ready to wear models.
Is adelaide a style or a construction of shoes? I am not familiar with the term and could not get much results through Google.
JW: it’s a style.
Normally, an oxford shoe has two separate pieces of leather for the vamp and the quarter that are joined together. An adelaide has just one piece, like a whole cut but with a separate piece for the facing.
If you look at these pictures and compare them to other oxfords, you will see that there is no line of stitching between the vamp and the quarter, i.e. the front part and back part of the shoe. It’s all one piece, with only the facing separate. This particular model also has heel counter and a toe cap, but not all adelaides do – some look just like a whole cut with the facing (where the laces are) the only separate part.
I’ve always thought that shoes hould lace up so that the quarters are flush, but the pair in the first picture don’t. Am I wrong in that assumption?
Alex B – I was curious about that, as the pattern is different too, with an extra row of stitching but I bet you that they asked for the last to be modeled after the DG70 as it is identical….
Joohwan – See below my friend
Alex B – Thank you for that!
Unknown – no you are right…. this pictures simply indicates that he has a very high instep that causes him to lace like this…
-Justin