So, I’ve decided to add a new section to the blog.
Menswear 101.
This is a back to basics extension of Dressiquette and Know your patterns posts I’ve been doing for a while now and it goes hand in hand with my motto of “a well informed man, is a well-dressed man“. Ok, that’s a lie I just made that up and it barely makes any sense.
The truth is, while I write posts I’m researching and learning new things about menswear that I never knew before, stuff that I find interesting and think is worth passing along. Like this, the first in the series, the mystery of…the brogue!
I’m starting to realise that the Irish and Scotts have played a fundamental role in today’s fashion landscape, they gave us Tartan, and apparently, they gave us the brogue as well.
Its origin was a simple leather shoe with perforations in it to allow water to drain out (what were these people walking through??!) today the now decorative perforations (or broguing) still characterise this formal dress shoe and its many forms. Yep, many forms, let’s start with the current megatrend, the wingtip.
Also known as the full brogue, it has decorations all along the toe cap and it’s serrated edges which extend down the shoe into a wing shape. From the top, the W shape looks like the extended wings of a bird, cool uh? A shoe with the same wingtip-style toecap but no perforations is known as an “austerity brogue”, while a plain toe with wing-tip perforations is called a “blind brogue”.
The above shoe is called a longwing brogue, and its distinguishing feature is the extended wing tip that reaches around the shoe and meets in the back.
Meet the semi-brogue or half-brogue, its distinguished by its rounded toe cap that is perforated both along its jagged edge and the centre of the toe cap
Lastly, we have the quarter brogue, unlike the above semi-brogue, it only has decorations on the jagged edge of the toe cap.
That’s it really, that’s the full brogue story as far as I know it, use this information wisely.
All the above shoes are from Zara.
Okay. Stay Fancy.
Love the information you provide. Watch for your updates frequently. Great style. Maybe you could do an article on suits for different body types.
Totally agree with everything including the article about suits for dif body types.
Great job! Thanks for sharing.I regularly visit your site and find a lot of interesting information.
Thanks Alex, I’m always happy to hear that someone enjoys the blog : )