Well, here is the big announcement: I have signed on as associate editor at HODINKEE. Click through to read more about HODINKEE’s relaunch, what you can expect to see from me over there, and what the future looks like for Simply Refined.

Today the new HODINKEE launched, and boy does it look amazing. Part of the relaunch was the official announcement of my signing on as associate editor, working alongside founder and executive editor Ben Clymer. The new site should make the overall user experience at the site one of the best on the web, and we have some really exciting stuff in store for readers in the coming weeks and months. I will be writing daily for the site as well as working on a variety of really great projects that you’ll start to hear about on HODINKEE very very soon.

I have been fortunate enough over the last two and a half years to become involved with some of the most talented, passionate, and interesting people in the menswear, luxury, and lifestyle worlds, and moving to HODINKEE is a perfect way to continue this journey.

Posting on Simply Refined will not be stopping entirely, though it will be reduced to an as-can-do basis. For the short-term this will be very little, but hopefully we can work back up to some regular schedule.

Finally, I just want to say thank you to all my readers and the friends I have made so far through Simply Refined. I hope you will all follow me to HODINKEE, whether you’re already a watch nut or not. And, as I have said before, the pleasure is really all mine.

Well, it’s another shoe review. That’s what, two in two weeks? Meermin has been making major waves in the menswear scene lately. A few weeks ago I got in touch with Pepe Albaladejo in Mallorca and he was kind enough to send me a pair of double monkstraps and to give me an interview. Here are the results.

First a little about the brand. Albaladejo is adamant that value is the heart of what Meermin is about. “We have been in the shoemaking always. Our family has a long shoemaking tradition. We saw that there is a need in the market of quality shoes, but usually they are very expensive. We started Meermin with the aim of changing the concept of high quality shoes. Find the way of offering high quality shoes at the best value for the customer.” Sounds promising, no?

Prices may seem shocking when you first look. These suede double monks are 150 Euros including VAT, which is low enough to engender a little skepticism. But at first glance, Meermin really does deliver some of the best value I have seen.

The construction is solid all the way around. Good welting, a solid faux-Dainite sole, non-tinny buckles, and top quality suede provide a good foundation. In fact, the suede is from Charles F. Stead, who also supply makers like Alden. “Since we have always been in shoemaking,” says Albaladejo, “we are pretty well connected with the material suppliers/producers and we can get better prices for high volume purchases,” which is how they do it. A very impressive beginning for shoes at this price range.

The toe puff feels sturdy (a place where lesser brands often skimp), the lining leather is smooth and consistent, and overall I’m very happy with the fit. I’m an 8 1/2 US, and sometimes I need a narrow, so when Albaladejo told me to go with a straight up UK 8, I was a little worried. But he knows his product and his customers and did a great job service wide. There were even some FedEx issues and he handled them like a champion.

Like with the Ed Et Al shoes I reviewed last week, I’m going to wear these around the next few weeks and report back on how they wear. Trees are not included, so I’ll have to pick some up, but at this price I really can’t complain. I anticipate good things, but how the soles wear, durability of the straps, and suede durability all take time to fully figure out.

The double monkstraps I chose might be the most popular option right now, but they will do made to order shoes, letting you select “style, last, upper leather, lining leather, sole option, sole finishing, construction…currently the expected production time is about 12-14 weeks.” I’m not wild about all of the lasts, which you can see above, but the Hiro used on my monks, the Ama, and the Olfe are all very appealing. It’s a matter of taste, so I’d rather have more options than too few.

It’s certainly a perk that Meermin offers a few construction and materials grades, so you can really get what you want and put money into the things that matter for you. If you really want hand welting, fine. If you want shell cordovan, go for that. I can’t speak to the quality of each individual option and product line, but it’s admirable that Meermin wants to give customers value without forfeiting control.

Finally, there has been a lot of buzz about Meermin’s relationship with Carmina. Albaladejo assures me that the connection is exclusively familial – different branches of the same family own and operate both, but they share no facilities, staff, or designs. No more ambiguity guys, sorry to the conspiracy theorists.

Also check out the Meermin tumblr for some great shots of the shoes. I also enjoy the updates.

Everyone knows your shoulders need to appear even-ish, but your coat needs to be balanced in a few key ways: side to side, front to back, around the buttons, and with the trousers. Each of these dimensions depends on the others being in proportion, so it’s not enough to cinch here or let out there. You need to find (or have made) coats that fit the bill across the board.

Side to side is easy. Even with soft shouldered, unstructured coats, you don’t want to look lopsided or have the coat pull to one side. It looks sloppy, will result in bulging at the back of the collar, and generally make the shoulder line look rumpled and awkward. Like I said, this is the obvious one.

Front to back is a little more difficult. If you stand particularly straight or hunch a lot, this will be almost impossible to perfect without true bespoke. Just the nature of the beast. But, ideally, you want a coat which appears neither to hang from the fronts of your shoulders down the back (like a cape) nor to be affixed to the backs of your shoulders and to be pulled up in front.

Neither of these is elegant, and result in the coat looking oversized in the first case, and undersized in the second. The later is a big problem with a lot of the faux-Neapolitan stuff floating around these days. I don’t want to trash any particular brands or individuals, but most of the trendy tailoring brands don’t balance their coats very well. In and effort to look slim and casual, the quarters end up standing away from the body and too close to the trouser waist.

This leads into (and is connected intimately with) button balance. You can place the stance over a wide range, but it’s not as simple as cutting the holes wherever you want. The area below the buttons, the skirt, needs to be in an appealing proportion with the area above the buttons (the chest). Again, these small, trendy coats kill me on this front. Buttons are too high up on the chest and skirts still manage to be too short. Don’t even get me started on gorge height and lapel length. That’s another post altogether.

Finally, there is the balance between coat and trousers. You want the width of the thighs of your trousers to be close to the width of your coat where the two meet. This gives you a long, uninterrupted line down the entire body rather than cutting you in two. If you’re really tall, maybe you want to wear a belt or something to break yourself up, but I don’t think this is really a problem. We could go into more detail here, but this is just the basics, right?

All of these balance issues revolve around a simple principle – moderation. You don’t want anything wonky, anything too exaggerated, or proportions that distort instead of enhancing the human body. It’s simple when you think of it that way.

Images sourced from Monsieur Jerome and Mr. Mort

You may remember a while back Ed Et Al offered to treat me to a pair of custom butterfly loafers. Now, two months later, the finished shoes have arrived. I’ve unboxed them, given them the once over, and here are my thoughts.

First things first. When I placed my order, I was told they would take about two months to complete, and Ed and Candy delivered on this promise almost down to the day. Candy was even kind enough to send some photos of the finished shoes along with the emailing notifying me they were on their way. Three days later I had the shoes in hand.

Pulling them out of the box was very exciting. This is my first custom footwear experience, so I was anxious to see how things turned out. And broadly speaking, I’m very happy with the results.

Pulling them out of the box, the shape of the shoes is exactly what I had in mind. A long, chiseled shape that avoids being too pointy or square at the end. You can see the toe puff has a nice shape and good three-dimensionality to it. For me, these are the difficult-to-achieve hallmarks of a good chisel toe.

These are custom fit as well as custom designed. You’ll remember I did tracings of my feet as well as describing fit issues to Ed and Candy via email. Overall the fit is very good. The toe box is comfortable but narrow and the waist hugs my feet nicely. My heel does pop a little, but I expect that to go away once I’ve broken in the soles. Considering this was all done between Singapore and Chicago via email, I have nothing to complain about here.

Material wise, I’ve pretty impressed as well. The suede is soft and richly colored, and the leather for the trim has good grain and structure to it. Construction feels sturdy, stitching is even and strong, and the heel is dense and well layered.

Some of the finishing details, however, leave a little to be desired. There is a little midsole peaking out from the edges of the insole and some glue visible in one of the shoes. Obviously I’d like the attention to detail to extend to the insides of the shoes, but if there has to be some give-and-take, I’d rather it give here than somewhere more visible.

There is also some color variation on the toes and around the heels. I believe this is burnishing like on the leather shoe which inspired this one, which I did not ask for, but it could also be discoloration because of quick stretching around the last. Either way, it’s not optimal, but doesn’t really take away either.

Moving back to the positives, the edges of the sole are beveled nicely, and the butterfly straps, welting, and sole finishing are all excellent. The complete opposite of the problems noted above. I had not requested the name plate on the fiddleback waists (option was never discussed), and I’m not one for bold monogramming, but these are pretty discrete and a nice little touch.

Ed Et Al’s fiddleback waist is much more restrained and gentle than what I was expecting, but they hug my foot well without looking exaggerated in any way. If you’re looking for the super sharp fiddleback of Gaziano & Girling, this might not do it for you, but I’m very happy with the result.

The only thing that I find frustrating are the shoe trees that come with the Ed Et Al custom grades. At this level of shoemaking (and price), I expect some cedar or hardwood trees that fit the shoes well – or no trees at all. My foot is a little narrow, and while the shoes accommodate this the trees do not. The result is a tree that you really have to jam in there and I’m worried they might stretch the vamp out over time – plus they’re made of some lightweight particle wood with a veneer. Easy fix for Ed Et Al, and one I highly recommend.

So, in summary, there is a lot to recommend about Ed Et Al’s custom grade shoes. Starting at just under $500 USD, they’re definitely the most budget-friendly option for custom footwear. Ed and his team were wonderful to work with, accommodating, and generally responsive to my emails (though I know some readers have had issues with this). The raw materials are top notch, exterior finishing very good, and construction solid. I do wish interior finishing received a little more attention, trees were higher quality, and that I had been consulted on little details like burnishing and the nameplate.

I think Ed has something very special here, and while he has a little room to grow and perfect, don’t we all. He’s offering a great service at a competitive price. I look forward to wearing these and reporting back with final thoughts in a few weeks’ time.

Update – After only a few hours’ wear, the heel popping is already all but gone. Like I expected, it was just a matter of breaking in the soles and not a problem with shape. 

Before diving into my three dos and don’ts, you may have seen this quote from Australian tailor Patrick Johnson circulate the web last week – it’s what inspired this post and contains a lot of truths I want to expand on:

If you don’t wear a jacket in summer then my question to you is: why not? Jackets are wonderful. They give you pockets to put things in, hide your sweat patches and look smart and professional. They also give you a waist, something you are tragically denying yourself with your big square shorts and your big square, short-sleeved shirt. Wear a jacket in a lightweight wool, cotton or linen made with very little or even no lining and larger armholes for an unimaginably cool, smart summer option.

Dos

Open Weave Cloth

There is much more to cloth than the base material. There are cottons that wear warm and cashmeres that wear cool. It all has to do with the weave. You want to wear cloths like hopsack and oxford that will let air pass through the cloth and naturally cool your body. If you hold a piece of something like JJ Minnis’ Fresco (a classic open weave wool cloth choice) up to the light you can see this really obviously. The stuff looks like gauze, allowing tons of light through. And that means air.

Most people consider shirts year-round clothing for the most part, but there are some great open weave cloths that make perfect summer shirts too. In lighter weights, pique actually makes great button up shirts. You’ll have to go MTM or bespoke for these though.

Layers

Less is not always more. What you want to do is create cool pockets of air around your body, just like you want to create warm pockets in winter. Same principle, opposite effect. The key is to keep space between your layers. In winter you want things that fit close to the body to hold heat in, whereas this time of year you want space for air to circulate between the layers. Undershirts are probably the best example of this.

Care for Your Clothes

Your clothes WILL take a beating over the summer and if you’re not careful some things will be ready for the trash by fall. Shirts will get doused in sweat after one wear. Wash frequently and use pretreated on cuffs, collars, and pits. Switch to a non-antiperspirant deodorant for the summer. You’re going to sweat no matter what, and antiperspirant will just leave yellow stains on your shirts.

If you’re going sockless don’t forget trees and air. And along the same lines, your trousers and jackets will require more recovery time, so hang nicely where they can air out, and don’t try wearing the same jacket every day. That’s just a recipe for a very expensive rag.

Don’ts

Linings

Get rid of them. Layers of tightly woven, non-breathing material between you and your new open woven clothes are the last thing you want when the temperature rises. Trouser linings will just stick to your legs, and jacket linings turn all jackets into wearable ovens. Sleeves can stay lined, and maybe shoulders, but buggy, quarter, and half linings should be the order of the day.

As Jesse wrote on Put This On last week, unlined jackets tend to be pricier off the rack because of the extra work required, but if you’re ordering custom/bespoke it should be no problem. Without linings you are going to see more wrinkles at the elbows, knees, and seams of your clothes, but that’s all part of solid summer style.

Tight Cuts

As Patrick observes above, a jacket gives you a waistline unachievable otherwise, even for the most fit. That said, you do want your summer clothes cut a little looser than usual. Not baggy by any means, just with a little extra. Without linings, anything tight will cling and ride up, plus you don’t want sweat soaking into your tailored clothing. Shirts are easy to wash, wool suits not so much.

Trousers can be a particular problem in this area. Without a lining they can bunch up around your calves if cut too narrow, not to mention sticking to your thighs. If you go with the open weave fabrics recommended above, they can be a little heavier which will help with draping.

Give Up

When you get up and the forecast says a high of 95 degrees for the day, the impulse is to just forgo dressing altogether. Don’t give up. Most guys who are into their clothes prefer fall/winter, but summer can be enjoyable if you know what you’re doing. In a sea of sweating, uncomfortable, disheveled looking people, you can look put together and like you’re not even breaking a sweat. No reason to not enjoy dressing for three months a year.