Alright, I have decided to come back, and I do apologize for my brief absence. Worthington, thank you for not letting the blog go down, and I do like the new look. I see that you took my advice of using your Jaguar for inspiration. Anonymous haters, you will not win, and I will not let you get to me in any form or fashion again. Pundit, I use restraint in calling a blog stupid and immature, but you deserve it. I can't believe you don't have the creativity to create your own blog, and you decided to use my posts for your critique....pathetic!
Now, on to something more positive....Weejuns. I love Bass Weejuns, and I do own a rather beaten up pair that needs some serious repair. I liked the fact that they are unlined, and I have considered purchasing another pair very soon. The older variety look better than today's version, but they are still a great investment. They look great with khakis, jeans, shorts, tweed, etc. If a man is to own only one pair of shoes, then Weejuns should be the choice. In addition, they are rather inexpensive, and they look better the older they get.
Photo Credit: Admiral Cod
22 comments:
Welcome back. Nice entry. These will never go out of style. They're like cockroaches and a nuclear blast.
Whoop! Haters, my boy is back!
Wowie, zowie gumdrops, I'm glad I found your blog and that you didn't stop blogging. It's so much fun!
xoxo KB
I guess I'm doing something right. Your buddy Pundit left an nasty post on my blog today. However, I see that he is here kissing up.
Split personality?
Poloist, this pundit guy needs to get a life......I plan to delete his comments and to never accept them again. It is good to be back, and I am a little shameful that I let the anonymous guys get to me. It is ok though, because it will not happen again. Furthermore, they will not ever get to leave a sour puss comment here again because I just refuse to post them. So hack away haters. Dang...it is good to be back, and special thanks to my pal Worthington for keeping things going....I appreciate it.
It seems that we need to call in Sherlock Holmes to solve "The Case of the Disappearing/Reappearing Richard".
Hooray! Welcome back!!!
OK, a question-is it accpetable to wear weekuns with white socks?
I'm glad you are back!
Bill
Thanks Bill -- I personally would not suggest wearing white socks with weejuns. Is it acceptable, yes, but not preferred in my opinion. Others may differ.
Glad you're back, Richard.
Yay!!!!
Does it seem to others that the Weejuns of today are of slightly shoddy quality?? Even so, I used to have two pairs in college, and although I wore the crap out of them they still held up pretty well.
By the way, the "Ave Maria" selection on your playlist is actually by Schubert, not Beethoven. Beethoven was a little suspicious of organized religion, and while Schubert was a bit naughty, he lived in super-Catholic Vienna....just for the record.
Paul,
They people who run the site that produces my playlist had it listed as Beethoven. That is twice now they have made a mistake, but unfortunately, I cannot type in the corrected name. Sorry!
Richard....Weejuns are the quintessential classic loafer. I still have my brown ones and a pair of navy blue ones from college. Back then, when they were still made in the USA, they had a special order catalogue that offered different colors and grains. I also had a pebble grained tan pair.
Welcome back. You're right that the Weejuns you can get at the Bass stores are not what they used to be. This is because the original company sold out back in the 90s.
The original buyer was a private equity firm, but the new owner is Philips Van Heusen. The sale was because the company was losing money, which happened to a lot of shoe manufacturers during that time--see Dexter, Hush Puppies, Rockport, et. al.
By that time, shoe manufacturing had been largely outsourced to Taiwan and Hong Kong (and later mainland China). Some older, more classic manufacturers tried to hold on to U.S. (and in some cases European and South American) manufacturing, but could not keep up with the deflation that China was exporting. So, their profit margins became thin and then non existent.
Companies like Bass were left with a choice: either go very high end and expensive or outsource the manufacturing. Bass was never terribly high end, so it couldn't go there and the original owners held on to domestic manufacturing for too long.
I remember the original sale because I was in college at the time. The first buyer brought in new merchants who decided to take the company in a decidely fashion forward direction. They killed the kiltie tassel loafer! And, even the brushed penny was hard to come by in their stores.
Thankfully, PVH has brought back those classic shoes, but the damage had already been done. Bass lost so much share that they could not get into the best factories or compete for the best hides. So, you now have a shoe that is not as good as it once was.
Please don't misunderstand. This is not a rant about offshoring. I'm very much in favor of offshoring where the economic good of the majority is served. This is more a commentary on strategic errors by the original ownership group that were compounded by the PE firm that first bought the company. PVH has done a nice job, but the company could not recover from mismanagement in the late 90s.
Cole Haan blew up and filled the void very nicely during this time, which explains their more dominant position in better department stores (slots that used to be held by Bass.
Richard,
Thank you for not dropping out. I only started reading this blog about a month ago, and was disappointed that it might disappear.
On Weejuns . . .
I like them. But I like "beefroll" penny loafers a little more. The Florsheim Berkley represent a great, and not too expensive, example. Sebago also makes them.
Anyway, dig the blog. Keep it up.
-Jordan
Cream or offwhite slouch socks with weejuns is totally acceptable in my book. Naturally, for weekend and home use only. I guess the versatility of weejun (smart with dark socks and sack suit, relaxed with ducks and slouch socks) is the key to its longevity...
What are the best socks to wear with weejuns (other than wearing them sockless)? I notice a lot of people in vintage photographs wear white athletic socks with weejuns. It seems to me the athletic socks cheapen the look of the weejuns.
Welcome back, Richard! Just ignore those haters, there is always someone who wants to be mean and spoil things for everyone else.
I like Weejuns but I have to say that I'm more of a Cole-Haan girl. Wore Weejuns as a kid but started wearing Cole-Haans in the early '90s and never looked back.
Anonymous,
I just prefer my normal dress socks (navy, charcoal) or argyle socks. Fun colors also work well.
Glad to see you back...
richard welcome back-enjoyed the pica and commentary
max
Richard:
What won't you drag through the mud of bloggerdom? The predilection toward vanity and its consumer oriented offshoots is nothing at all to be proud or ashamed of in this country though it should be re-iterated that it hardly constitutes any behaviour or mode of conduct within this notion of waspdom you pursue/espouse depending on your blogging mood.
The weejun is a fine shoe. Nothing worth discussing in the intricacies of sourced materials, marketing costs and retail/market placement but a reliable pair of shoes that have as much the totality of expressing ones person(a) as the color of one's eyes.
It seems as if you are reaching the outer limit of your personal, your fathers anecdotal and the internet's knowledge of the wasp. It has always been my understanding that fashion magazines usually publish semi-literature, cultural critiques and other mid brow miscellanea to dilute the otherwise insipid vanity of their entire enterprise though this decency or perhaps shame is lost on you.
If you had read the Times this weekend you might have seen the Cheever article and have robbed the piece blind for comments. One wonders whether you are too dim for such a caper or too subservient to the strictures of attempted waspdom?
I just discovered your blog and wanted to tell you how much I enjoy it.
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