Grenson für Cole-Haan
Made in England
Wildleder-Suede Full Brogue Oxford
Euro 360

This lovely Suede Full Brogue is a limited special order production dating from the early 1990 when Cole-Haan augmented their American production with a small quantity of English-made shoes from Grenson. These shoes worked out to be too expensive for Cole-Haan’s middle-market clientele, thus Cole-Haan discontinued the English line and resorted to an Italian one. The English-made line is very much in demand today. Suede is difficult to photograph and here again the pictures of this supremely elegant shoe are inadequate. The actual colour is the just the right dusty, warm, medium-brown. The quality of the suede, again, difficult to see in the photos, is Grenson’s well-known superior velour-like, soft-to-the-touch top-quality, full-grain calfskin suede.

About the model: The Suede Brogue is one of the perhaps dozen most basic gentleman’s shoes and has a prominent palace in every collection. This is an ideal shoe to wear when surveying your country estate in your baggy tweeds or knickerbockers, but equally suitable for daytime wear in town. It is the daytime casual and also the business-shoe-of-choice for the London “City” (financial district) gentleman. Traditionally, black is not worn before 18:00 hours, thus the Brown Suede is perfectly suitable, indeed quite sophisticated, with your gray pin or chalk-striped suit or other business wear. Of course also perfect with a blue blazer and flannel “bags”, not to mention any casual dress; kakis, tweeds, checks, corduroys or any earth-tones suitings. I am personally a great fan of suede and I find the Full or Half Brogue in suede at once dressy and relaxed, a shoe, to be sure, in the English taste and one that absolutely distinguishes the wearer. Moreover, this is the kind of shoe that, in this highest of quality calfskin suede, requires no more than a quick brushing when dry to be clean and fit to wear again. I find my Suede shoes improve with age and weathering; they become more handsome with a few years and miles on them and are simple to maintain. An elegant, comfortable and finely made shoe and a Euro 500+ value.