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Salomon Thoj
The Ivy Loafer is a penny loafer inspired by old-school Ivy style. It is constructed with a slightly boxier and more relaxed look than our flagship penny loafer model, resulting in a timeless and sporty silhouette. The shorter vamp and the 360-degree welt further reinforce the design cues that draw inspiration from collegiate aesthetics.
The design of the vamp here is often overlooked as a design element. The term vamp refers to that part of the shoe that sits on top of your foot. High-vamp loafers come up higher on your foot, while low-vamp loafers terminate closer to your toes. As Mark Cho of The Armoury demonstrates in the video above, even when loafers are built on the same last, a higher vamp can help elongate the shape of your foot. This makes the shoes look sleeker and thus dressier.
Dressy loafers look most at home with tailored clothing, while casual loafers look better when kept to casualwear. But what if you want a versatile loafer that can do both? Straddling these two worlds can be like threading a needle, but it can be done.
In the world of slip-on shoes, no style is more controversial than the horsebit. The style is associated with flashy dressers, aggressive powerbrokers, and arrivistes. In the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort (played by Leonard DiCaprio) wears jet-black Gucci horsebit loafers with strong-shouldered pinstripe suits, starched white collars, and power ties. The silhouette perfectly conveys the sort of greed-is-good ethos that we associate with bankers in the 1980s, when this film was set.
I fell in love with tassel loafers in much the same way that I fell in love with a lot of classic clothing: I got inspired by how other cultures adopted these items. I love how older Japanese guys in the tailoring industry wear tassel loafers, particularly those inspired by Italian men who copy British and American dressers. In this remixing of culture, you often see jaunty tassel loafers worn with soft-shouldered suits and sport coats, trad-y outfits involving Shetland sweaters, and even a bit of workwear.
I was between the Brixton convertible-back loafers and the Jordaan loafers. I wanted brown loafers, which is why I considered the Jordaans for a while, but I ended up going with the black Brixtons because they were SO comfortable. This is because the Brixtons have flexible backs that you can step down on, turning them into mules (or convertible loafers). I think they look a little weird when I do this, so I wear them as loafers only. But those soft leather flexible backs? MAGIC on my feet.
I normally wear a size 7.5 in flats, but I took a size 7 in the Brixton loafers because of the flexible backs, which stretch and give. My friends who own the shoes also went down a half size, so I can recommend with confidence that you should go down a half size in the Brixtons. In the Jordaans, however, I wore my true size. (7.5) In the mules, I wore a 7.5 as well.
For those who like to keep it simple, here's a moccasin loafer with timeless style. Soft leather with padded lining wraps completely around the foot for a plush feel. A removable cushioned footbed and a lightweight shock-absorbing sole supports you with every step. Simplify features many beautiful smooth and textured leathers.
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