The thing I was most excited about doing with our new PS Showroom (other than picking carpet colours, obviously) was helping brands come to London. Doing a pop-up is not cheap or easy, so helping someone do so affordably and with local advice is appreciated. We certainly appreciate it when we do ours with J. Mueser in New York.
Assisi are coming to London for the first time next week - Friday to Sunday - and we will have some drinks on the Thursday evening to welcome them. Do come along if you'd like to see the tailoring outside of an appointment, and get a look at our very-much-work-in-progress showroom. Those drinks will be from 6pm-8pm, at 37 Harley Street.
I'm now pleased to say that the American shoemaker August Special will also be coming to London at the end of March, during our next Permanent Style pop-up from March 26th-29th.
Quite a few readers were interested in August Special after we covered them here, but I know it's always hard to order shoes remotely with uncertainty over sizing, so I suggested to the founder Joseph that he could come over with a size run. He's also going to offer to pay duty and taxes to readers that come along.
Here are the details:
- August Special will be at the Permanent Style pop-up, Wednesday March 26th to Saturday 29th
- 11am to 7pm, 10pm to 6pm on Saturday
- Orders will be shipped when Joseph returns to New York, received probably second week of April
- Readers attending will have to pay shipping, but duties and taxes will be covered by August Special, so a decent discount
The shoes that will be coming are:
- A full size run of the Augie Loafers across the Type-S, P and new Goodyear-welted GP models
- That's US sizes 7-13
- Selected sizes of the chukka boots, covering the various colours including three new ones
- Other samples of new designs, including potentially a lightweight travel shoe and a sandal. Not to order now, but to get a preview of ahead of release later
The plan is not for Joseph to do regular trunk shows in the UK. This may be a one-off. But we wanted to give all readers that were unsure of sizing the opportunity to try them and a better idea in person.
See you next week at Assisi. Oh and we went for 'Italian stone' for the carpet. Constructive criticism will be entirely ignored.
This is interesting. Will the new showroom also permit you to do more variations for photo shoots – for instance, it would have been interesting to see the Assisi blazer with a non Western shirt, as well as the Western shirt?
Hopefully yes, we will try and use it for those kinds of articles
Might be a lone voice here Simon, but would be really interesting to have a consistent location and lighting conditions for photographing garments (or even cloth samples) for comparative articles – colour is obviously so lighting dependant, but drape and even weave can be better seen in lighting suited to highlighting it.
Thanks Zachary. Good to know and we can try to push towards that
Excellent news about August Special – I’ll definitely come along. Also looking forward to seeing the new showroom!
Best,
Jonathan
Hi Simon,
Congratulations and best wishes again on the new space. Great idea on the pop-up opportunities for various brands.
Special requests from me:
-The Real McCoys at some point? I have to say their online fulfilment is excellent, however it would be great to see and establish sizes on the actual items. Without encroaching on Clutch Cafe of course. It may influence The Real McCoys to reopen or to take a space within another shop somewhere in London.
– perhaps other Japanese brands?
– Marktt would be great to see again in person?
I would thank you although my wallet may not!
All the best
Thanks Stephen, good suggestions. Real McCoys are also stocked by Rivet & Hide in Mayfair now by the way, in case you hadn’t seen their new, bigger shop
Hi Simon,
I love Real McCoy’s but my word the prices in Britain are plain ridiculous. Their M65 re-creation is £450 (in yen) on their Japanese store, but £695 in the British one!
Do you have any inside info on what causes this price difference?
Have you looked up the VAT and duties that would be required to import it Matt? I had a quick look and that takes it to £650, even before you pay for any staff in the UK to run the site, stock it, handle the shipment and so on.
I get it to £550, remembering the 10% Japanese Vat isn’t paid, but that doesn’t consider shipping or the taxes on it. Rivet & Hide presumably don’t have extra staff or website just for the Real McCoy stock and you wouldn’t expect Real to have a dedicated UK wholesale person/website etc. There will be an element of FX buffer and other factors like differences in consumer rights. Inevitability there will be consideration of what the local market will pay, on the basis the jacket is sold out £695 seems acceptable to enough
With the duties it seemed higher to me, but anyway, having a store and staff is going to add a cost to every product, and while you wouldn’t expect McCoys to have a team here, they do and it makes everything easier than if they didn’t.
Their products also have such value in them from a quality of production and materials point of view, compared to any mainstream or fashion brand
The price difference is now so large, it’s probably cheaper just to fly to Tokyo and stock up on a decent amount while you are there. I’m lucky to need to fly there regularly for work so always pick up some things while I’m there. A couple of points to note:
1) the store doesn’t offer the usual tax-free discount for tourists that most other JP shops do (see point 2 as to my rationale as to why)
2) the staff in the Tokyo store are extremely unhelpful and generally seem to hate having to deal with foreigners. I’m not sure if they’ve had a bad experience with some people being rude or not treating the stock with care, but you are basically followed around like you are on day release from prison (as a point of reference, I’m late 30s, OCD careful with the clothes and often go in there either wearing business clothes or casual wear mostly from their own store…so couldn’t really be any less of a difficult customer)
3) They do not offer returns once you have paid and left – important to ask the staff about shrinkage (e.g. the sweatshirts in M fit me well in store but they shrink on washing so need to buy an L to get an M fit afterwards). Try to ask the staff this…they will generally be able to answer this question for most items.
I go to that shop a lot too as I regularly visit Japan to see my wife’s family and always have the exact same experience. Sometimes the staff warm up a bit with some chat but generally not the welcoming experience that you get in other menswear shops in Tokyo. I’ll keep returning though of course because of the quality of the clothes and the big discount compared to buying in the UK.
As one who recently purchased my first August Special “Angie Type P”s let me say they are fantastic – well made, great quality, comfortable and a perfect low-key vibe.
Hi Simon
I’ve got a question completely unrelated to the article.
but, do you think Edward Green’s belgravia’s in mink suede is dark enough to be worn with charcoal/navy trousers?
I can’t decide between the mink suede and espresso suede
If you will be wearing them with charcoal a lot, I’d go with espresso myself
Thanks for the input btw how is the 184 last compared to crockett’s 314 (I think that’s the last for the Harvard shell cordovan)
Unfortunately there aren’t any EG dealers in kazakhstan
The 184 is a little slimmer and longer. Not a lot, but enough to make it a little smarter and the 314 a slightly more comfortable fit on me
Do you take the standard width on both?
Yes
I really dislike these short vamp loafers. Look more like women’s shoes.
I can see that point of view JJ. Like many things I think it depends on your references and so context. Eg if you like some 80s styles then this kind of low-vamp loafer was very common, at Ralph or Armani or anywhere
Hi Simon. How are you? Unrelated to this article which was very good. Did you find that the Saman Amel City Mocs fit true to size? I have slightly wide forefoot but narrow ankles and heel. I would normally wear UK8/US9/EU42 in most shoes. Any help re sizing/fit is appreciated. Thank you.
Hi Michael,
Apologies for the delay in replying, I was waiting until I was at home and could check the size.
Yes, mine are a 43 which is what I’d normally wear. The last is fairly wide so certainly not a problem if you have a wider foot. I have a narrow ankle and heel too, and find there is just about enough room to lace the top tight, though the two sides are pressed up against each other at that point.
Hi Simon. No need to apologise. Thank you so much for coming back to me on this query. Much appreciated. Kind regards.
I hope there will be sizes 7-9 of the chukka boots to try on, that would be great. Unfortunately I have never found loafers that I can wear, due to wearing orthotics, the heel always slips.
I’m looking for a pair of loafers that feel as comfortable as slippers. Preferably black and I’m use to wearing penny loafers (I don’t like the look of loafers with a tassel). I have a pair of Allen Edmonds that are ok but looking for something more comfortable. Any suggestions? Thanks!