Brogues, Pt 2

Summer Brogues

Some are brogues, and others are hybrids of brogues, oxfords, ghillies and spectator shoes. These summer brogues were my all-time favourite brogue shoes I have ever owned.

I can’t recall which brand they were, but I bought them from the same sale site as the brogues in the previous story, but these were fantastic from day one. They were just so comfortable: the leather was soft and the open tops and perforations were cooling for summer. The sole was also quite sturdy and supportive – more so than the taupe Urge brogues, and they certainly lasted longer. I also really loved the colour combination.

I wore these shoes to the death of the laces. They were so well-loved one simply broke in half one day. It was as strangely difficult to find off-white shoelaces as non-synthetic ribbon in this town, especially as I needed a particular length for the criss-cross lacing required by the shoes.

I eventually ran some to earth in a shoe-repairers near my workplace. The shopkeeper searched through a box of what resembled a decade’s worth of random shoelaces, and triumphantly produced these for me.

It meant that I could squeeze a little more life out of these beloved brogues, although you can see in the second picture just how worn they had become more that three years after the first photo was taken. The new laces were a bit too long, and quite a bit thinner, so they didn’t look as neat tied on. But at least it meant I was able to get one more season’s wear out of them before they finally well and truly ‘carked it’ (a bit of Australiana equivalent to ‘bit the dust’).

I was able to get one more season’s wear out of them before they finally well and truly ‘carked it’ …

I still have not found adequate replacements. I thought I had, for a few weeks, when I purchased a pair of brown tan shoes that were made of plaited leather, creating a kind of lattice effect. I thought they would be brilliant for summer. They came from the same sale website as these, but the delivery was suddenly cancelled, presumably because they had oversold their stock. I am still bitter about that, although with the refund I bought a red and white gingham dress on eBay, which has mollified me somewhat (it arrived), and I love it.

Photos: January 2013, April 2016