Summer footwear is where most men and women make the same mistake. They treat it as the category that does not matter, the part of the wardrobe that can be phoned in because nobody will notice. The opposite is true. What you wear on your feet in summer is more visible, not less. The clothes are lighter. The foot is more exposed. There is nowhere for a bad shoe to hide.
The espadrille belongs to the Mediterranean. Its construction is almost primitive: a jute sole, rope-stitched and flexible, topped with canvas or leather. It has been worn in Catalonia and the Basque Country since the 14th century, and it has not needed to improve because the fundamentals were correct from the start. Castaner, the Spanish house founded in 1927 by Luis Castaner and his cousin Tomas Serra, is the reference. Their classic style in black canvas with the traditional whipstitched toe is the one to own. It costs less than most designer sandals and wears with more authority. For women, Saint Laurent makes the espadrille in raffia with a wedge heel, turning what was once a fisherman's shoe into something that holds its own at a summer wedding. Loro Piana produces a version in suede with a leather-lined footbed that elevates the form without losing the honesty of the original. The espadrille on a man works with linen trousers and nothing else. The ankle must be visible. The trouser break must end above the jute sole. On a woman, it works with everything from a midi skirt to cropped trousers to a summer dress. It is the most versatile summer shoe available provided it is the right espadrille.
The boat shoe is an American invention with an Italian interpreter that has arguably surpassed the original. Paul Sperry created the first boat shoe in 1935 after watching his dog run across ice without slipping, then cutting wave-like grooves into a rubber sole. He stitched the upper in the moccasin style and laced it around the heel. The shoe has not needed to change since. Sperry Top-Sider is still the original and still correct in the classic brown leather. G.H. Bass, the Maine shoemaker founded in 1876, offers the American alternative with a slightly higher profile and a hand-sewn apron toe. But it is Tod's, the Italian house, that has become the reference for European summer dressing. The Tod's Gommino, with its 133 rubber pebbles across the sole and heel, is the boat shoe that moved from the deck to the street. The hand-sewn moccasin construction, the lacing that wraps the heel, the non-slip sole. These are functional details that have achieved the status of design. A Gommino worn sockless with a linen suit is one of the few genuinely correct summer looks a man can wear to lunch, to a gallery, or to a late afternoon drink.
The leather sandal is the most ancient summer shoe and the most misunderstood. At the accessible end, Birkenstock makes a sandal in oiled leather with a cork footbed that moulds to the wearer over weeks. At the top, Loro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli make sandals in the same leather used for their handbags, and the difference is visible in the way the leather accepts light. The rule for sandals is simpler than most people think: choose the sandal for the foot it fits, not the foot it was designed for. A sandal that fights the foot, a strap that cuts, a footbed that does not match the arch, is worse than no sandal at all. The strap must sit flat against the skin without tension. The footbed must support the arch without crowding the toes. If either condition is not met, return the sandal and start again. A good sandal disappears. A bad one announces itself with every step.
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