My relationship with Septieme Largeur is probably one of the longest in my time in the industry. Truth be told, I consider the founder and his family as own extended family. They are great people that helped me out a lot and will always be eternally grateful to them for that. They were also one of the first major brands to send me a pair of shoes for review, the same model in the highlighted image, but in a blue-on-blue patina. At the time, I was blown away by them. Not only because I loved the saddle design but also because it was among my first personal experience with patina. They were among the first brand, if not the first, to offer patina as a RTW customizable option. This is not to confuse with Berluti which offered patina’d shoes as RTW products, but rather how SL does it which offers you the natural crust shoe to put whatever patina you want on it with a short turnaround. ‘RTW Patina’ as I like to call it.
SL is quite large in Europe but I feel that the US market is not as aware of them for some odd reason. The beauty of the US market is that being a US consumer, any shipment from abroad (i.e. Europe) that is under $800 is essentially tax-free. At Septieme Largeur’s pricing this means that you can get up to 3 shoes in your order without paying import duties. Which is huge. I know that the fear of fit and returns is high though, especially with patina as that will most likely make it non-refundable. But once you have that fit down, their value for pricing is among the best in the industry. For example, their average RTW shoes is $235 ish, while the patina average is $295 ish. And they are all Goodyear welted. You might be confused on their site as when you go there you will see the European price which has a 20% VAT built in.
What I love is that SL has so many options available for patina. In total there are 20 shoe/boot/sneaker models are available for patina, with one belt option too. The belt option is huge and I am surprised that more people do not utilize this option as the lack of unique colors offered on leather belts in the shoe industry is rampant. And with the patina option belt, the sky is the limit and you are basically able to achieve any color you want. And the beauty of it is that you do not have to match another Septieme Largeur shoe. You can have them patina’d to match your current shoes. So next time you are looking for a belt in grey, green, teal, red or purple, you now know where to come!
What is even more impressive than the amount of shoes on offer is the amount of patinas they have catalogued. That really helps in the inspirational department as I know that most people might have a hard time visualizing how the patina will look and truth be told, most just end up copying another patina. So the amount of visual inspiration they have is a great and easy way to assure that you get a chance to see all that you can achieve. They also have a really good mix of bolder patinas and very subtle, classic ones. There are a lot people that find the concept of patina a bit much but some of their more subtle patinas look quite classic in reality. I don’t see why a conservative dresser could not pull one off. And finally, to make it easy for you, they even color coodinate the patina cataglogue it which is quite smart. Well played SL!
So the next time you are looking for a quick and unique pair of shoes, make sure to check out Septieme Larguer’s patina offering.
Learn more:
Shoes that can be patina’d: https://www.septiemelargeur.fr/en/
Color Inspiration Page: https://www.septiemelargeur.fr/en/content/32-our-patinas
I would love to buy a few pair but i don’t see where i can purchase a pair.
Hey William, I will ask the owner to email you for assistance.