The Dapper Alchemist

Founded in 2001, Harrys of London has played with the concept of traditional footwear by combining its lines and design with athletic-inspired materials. This can be clearly seen in the example above, which I find a more stylish and interesting alternative to the Sperry Top-Sider. The idea of infusing traditional shoes with athletic footwear-sourced technology isn’t new, Cole Haan has been using Nike’s Air tech for years. However, the Cole Haan-Nike collaboration is less inspired as it has the air of shoehorning, pardon the pun, the guts of a gym shoe into the body of a dress shoe. Harrys of London has instead used materials and lines found in more casual footwear and infused them into their line, which enables them to create novel and classic shoes. My sudden interest in Harrys stems from my recent purchase of a pair of their lemon brogues.

This is a piece of sartorial advice as much as it is a self-reminder, when wearing lemon brogues always keep in mind that the shoes are the accent of your outfit, the rest of your wardrobe should be sedate to serve as its counterpoint.