Menswear 101 – Derby shoes

There’s a reason this has taken so long.

Explaining the intricacies of mens footwear is a tricky situation as it often comes down to the smallest detail on a strange part of the shoe.

I had to start somewhere so I’ve started with one of the more difficult ones, the Derby. Identifying a derby shoe, all comes down to the eyelet tabs. The derby has what is called open lacing, which is to say that you can see a gap between the laces (in front of the tongue of the shoe), caused by the eyelet tabs being placed apart from one another.

The one further detail that makes a shoe a derby and not a bulcher (the two are often confused) is that the eyelet tab is attached to the vamp of the shoe as a separate piece of leather. What’s the vamp you ask? Simply explained its the piece of shoe that warps around your foot from before the toes to your ankle or heel.

I’ve indicated the explanations above on on this pair of derby’s from Zara below.

Once again guys, I’m no shoemaker or fashion history expert, but I do research the death out of my posts before I wright them. If someone out there has a better explanation or finds fault with the description, drop me a comment and I’ll be happy to re look it.