I recently had a great conversation over Skype with Kiyoshi. We talked about his move to California to work for Khaki’s of Carmel, and— as you’d expect of a couple menswear nerds—clothes. In a humorous moment, we discovered that we’d independently come to the same conclusion about our footwear: we both own too many pairs of tan shoes.
Or put another way, I don’t own enough mid-brown or dark brown shoes—in fact I only own one pair, my Loake Pimlico suede chukka boots. Almost every time I wear my mid-grey suit, or my navy suit, and I pull on my tan double monks or black captoe oxfords, a little voice in my head says "Dark brown would be a better choice."
It’s a such a strong compulsion that I’ve taken to wearing my Pimlicos with my grey worsted suit, a bit of a texture mismatch. And it’s got me thinking that my ideal shoe for wearing with suits would be a mid to dark brown captoe, probably made up as a double monk strap. I know double monks are trending hard and likely will seem played out in a few years, but I’m not really into single monks, and the minute or two saved by not needing to tie laces is so worth it when you’re running late and trying to rush out the door and into the car with two kids (and with two kids, somehow we’re always running late).
Given my budget, I’ve often found myself browsing for that grail pair of dark brown double monks on Yoox. Shoe shopping on Yoox is very much an exercise of sorting through the chaff of obscure brands producing often weird and ugly footwear. After a while though, you notice that certain names are always associated with great-looking shoes. One such name: Il Gergo.
As with many brands on Yoox, there’s precious little first-hand experience with Il Gergo relayed online—all I could gather is that they’re considered a decent value. So I ordered a pair of dark brown captoe oxfords for an in-person assessment—alas, Yoox doesn’t have any brown Il Gergo double monks in stock.
"Il Gergo" means "jargon" in Italian, and the line is made in Morrovalle, Italy by the Spernanzoni family, who apparently have been making shoes for several generations. Morovalle is located in the Marche region, a center for Italy’s footwear industry with a long list of Iocal manufacturers, including Santoni, Lattanzi, and Tod’s.
In spite of their provenance, the first thing I noted about the shoes was how “English” they seem. Indeed, Il Gergo apparently has a taste for English style and construction. Italian shoes generally have a reputation for an elongated, even pointed shape, but many of Il Gergo’s have a less severe taper—the pair I ordered has the sort of squared-off toe more often associated with the manufacturers in Northamptonshire, England. Fine English shoes are also generally Goodyear-welted, while Italian makers tend to prefer the sleeker profile afforded by Blake stitching (you can read more about the difference between these two constructions at The Shoe Snob). The pair I ordered is Blake-stitched, but Il Gergo also offers Goodyear-welted models — you can actually figure out which is which on Yoox by zooming in on the insole and reading the inscription.
Another striking feature about these shoes: the leather. Beautifully variegated but polished, it has an incredible depth of color that I’ve utterly failed to capture in my photographs. Ironically, they mostly appear somewhat light brown in the pictures I took, but they’re much closer to the deep chocolate brown seen in the top shoe of the middle picture above.
The mottling gave me a hunch about the leather’s origin, so I contacted Il Gergo and they confirmed what I suspected: it’s betis Radica leather from the legendary Ilcea tannery, makers of the similarly-antiqued “museum calf” used by John Lobb. While I’m hesitant to say it’s the exact same leather—no doubt Ilcea has several grades of quality—it is full-grain calfskin. This is the good stuff.
Do I have any caveats about Il Gergo? Yes.
The leather on the pair I ordered has a small marking that looks a bit like an oil slick. You can barely make it out in the first picture of this post—it’s a lighter spot on the right side of the shoe on the left, near the throat line. I’m not sure if this is normal for Radica calf or if it’s a blemish, but it’s a good reminder to always carefully examine goods received from Yoox, as they’re often seconds with slight defects.
Also, while the shoes I received were made of leather sourced from Ilcea, and Il Gergo also has boots made from Horween shell cordovan, that’s no guarantee that all their footwear is made from quality leather. Suede is generally a safe bet—for anything else, I’d examine them carefully, cross-check with Il Gergo’s website, and even contact them directly if you’re unsure (Yoox’s customer service will be no help in this regard).
Overall, though, I’d say these shoes are an excellent value at Yoox’s sub-$300 prices. Here are a few of my favorites:
Ilcea Radica Calf Oxford — this is the pair I ordered
Blue Suede Boots — Goodyear-welted, faux-Dainite sole
Conservative Brown Captoe Oxford
