His Point of View

I hope that the first time you heard the word “bespoke” it was not in Kanye’s song… But if that’s the case its time to catch up.   Bespoke means “custom made.”  And in this case I am speaking of custom made shoes. Now there are many companies that produce custom made shoes, but I say if you are going to buy something buy the best you can afford.  James Taylor & Son is one of the best, they have been making bespoke shoes & boots since 1857.

You may ask “Why would I want custom made shoes when the shoes I can pick up at Macy’s or Lord & Taylor work just fine?” And I would say to that, good sir or ma’am that a quality item made to fit your body will always look and fit better than anything you can buy off a rack.  And the added benefit is that a good pair of custom shoes can last you up to 20 years, and I know of cases where they have been handed down to the next generation.  You believe me not????   Well its true, custom shoes can be reconditioned by the manufacturer or any good cobbler and if this is done periodically your shoes will last longer than you(well hopefully not… but you never know).

Well here comes the bad news… to get a pair of these custom made wonders you will have to go to London, England… a couple times… or pay for them to come to you and perform fittings.  You must be fitted upon your initial order, and once again half way through the 3 month long process to ensure that the shoes fit properly.  But once they get your first pair done right, you can re-order with a simple phone call, as they store a mold of your foot which will be used for all future orders.  Oh and more bad news… your first pair will run you about £1495 plus tax  which is is about $2379…. But the good news is that every additional pair after the mold is made will only cost you £1295 or $2060 plus tax.  But that is a low price to pay for a quality pair of shoes which will last you 20 years or more.  Let’s not forget that these shoes will keep your feet healthy and feeling good, as custom shoes can prevent a number of ailments caused by improperly fitted shoes.  And the final benefit I will mention is that you have control over the style of your shoe.  You can select the type of shoe you desire and have it customized to your taste (e.g. wider toe, more narrow toe, select a different color and type of leather, select a precise height and width of your heel, and the list of options goes on)…

Below are some examples of the work which you can find at http://www.taylormadeshoes.co.uk

All photos from http://www.taylormadeshoes.co.uk

And not to leave out the ladies they makes shoes for you too…

I know, I know… not a ton of style variations, but these are only a few of the styles available at James Taylor & Son  and still it is an old school British company, so what dso you expect really other than classic styles.  Like I said before you can select a style and modify it to your taste… or google “bespoke shoes” or “Custom made shoes” and you will find other vendors, some of which provide more contemporary styles.  And even better,  some manufacturers have fitting centers or show rooms in the US.

This dude is crazy on his shoe game… These are all hand painted and one of a kind. For the prices you can’t really beat these for a pair of shoes no one else on the planet will ever have…  I expect that we will see more great designs from John in the future.

all photos from http://www.johnashford.ws

Piano Keys -$1000 (bag included)

Lemonade – $450

White Egyptian $1800 (handbag included)

Komoto Dragon -$1200

Go ahead and kill everybody when you step out in a pair of John Ashford’s hand painted footwear. Yeah the prices are a little steep, but if you want to be sure to stand out in the crowd this is the way to do it.

Since I have been out of touch with the world of fashion lately I figured that I would start with something I am current with.

You may ask ‘what is a hidden jewel?’… And if you did I would say yes I am referring to jewelry, but not what you may think. I am talking about wearing 7,17,or 21+ (functional) jewels such as rubies, sapphires, or other precious stones, which may all be hidden from view. Sounds silly? Well let me welcome you to the world of luxury timepieces which use precious stones to reduce friction on internal moving parts, allowing more accuracy in keeping time. Consider this your introduction… I can go on and on about watches but I won’t bore you with detail. After all if you cared you would already know, and if my blog sparks an interest you will Google terms like : watch jewels, movements, complications, etc. But I will ease into the subject with these nice yet somewhat affordable watches. You may think these are not affordable, well when I revisit this topic (to cover super high-end watches) you will feel as if these watches are Cadillacs in a world of Veyrons. If you are unfamiliar, trust me that you could afford a Cadillac far sooner than you could ever dream of driving a Veyron off the lot.

First up to bat is the Breitling Montbrillant Datora, (a part of the Breitling Navitimeter line).

If I had $6,000 laying around this is what I would do with it. It has a good blend of class and a face with a bunch of numbers and lines going on to give it an “I know a lot of stuff”  look which is perfect for me… It was once said, “if you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bull shit” and that sums up my love of the Montbrillant Datora by Breitling.

PS, if anybody in the blogosphere is liking my blog and is a generous individual.. please feel free to send me one of these Datoras.

The next player of the game is the Philippe Patek  “Men’s Calatrava 5116G”.

This is an ultra classic watch.  I mean how can you go wrong with this bad boy?  Well if you can afford this gem of a watch then life is comfortable as Patek watches generally start in the $20,000 price range and some models chime in at over $218,000.   I could not get an exact price on this item but its safe to say its a good portion of my annual salary.

Next I had to reach for the stars… well the Moon to bring you the “Moon Dust-DNA” by Romain Jerome.

Photo obtained from  http://www.robbreport.com/Watches-Idea-Man.aspx

This watch is sick, if for no other reason than the face is sprinkled with particles of dust from the moon.  I guess NASA had a garage sale to buy gas for the shuttle and these guys picked up some moon dust for the low…. Well It could not have been too low since these moon dusted creations range in price from $9,800- $300,000.   There are only 1969 of these pieces and yes 1969 was the year we set foot on the moon.

Ok, ok I know it was nice to drool over what is out of reach for most of us…but the reality is the if you are like me you probably need to stay under $300 or so for your wrist wear.  Even with a tight budget you can get a nice looking quality timepiece.  Avoid the huge faced pseudo iced out joints you can pick up at a flea market or in the back pages of your favorite urban magazine.  Go for simple, classy, real materials.  Stainless steel is a great choice, one real diamond in the face is much better than 200 fake diamonds.  And finally know who makes your watch, a lot of “designer” label watches are made by the same manufacturers so gain an understanding of the differences in quality each brand offers.  So here we go…below are some more affordable pieces that can add some style to your collection.

Photo from http://www.kennethcole.com

Kenneth Cole “You’re Golden”  $150.00, I have 2 Kenneth Cole watches and they are quite durable and they look great, especially for the price.  Photo from http://www.kennethcole.com

Photo from http://www.skagen.com

At $135 this Skagen “Two Tone Link”  is a  great option and Skagen is known for their almost paper thin watches if you do not like bulky wrist wear.

Finally I end with one of my favorite affordable brands…. Invicta…

photos from http://www.invictawatch.com

These are Swiss made watches of all varieties… if Invicta doesn’t make it you probably don’t need it… I mean these guys make more different styles of watches than there is a need for.  I suppose they patterned themselves after the Swiss Army Knife Company by making a watch for every imaginable need.  I say they are affordable because you can always find last year’s models on sale since they market new styles each year.  They retail anywhere from $200-$3,000 each but in that price range there has to be something you like and can afford.  I have found that the quality of these watches is excellent.  I love my Invicta, and my Invicta loves me!

That’s all for the semi-affordable- affordable watches for today… next time maybe I will dive into the world of watch complications, tourbillions, and watches that cost more than your favorite rapper’s leased Ferrari & Bently put together.

You may wonder where this guy came from and why do you care about what I have to say…. well I’m gonna tell you. But first let me tell you why I am here. Today I saw a photo of a couple pairs of shoes by BCBG…

And I was feeling them… so I sent out a Twitter ( find me there @mrggfep) and I said that if I had a lady I would buy her these shoes…. Well somebody made it known how awful these shoes were, so I challenged her to see what others thought.   So the challenge was born to figure out if in fact I could match or beat here sense of style… so here we are. But me being me… I am expanding on this idea, not only will I cover women’s fashion, but also men’s fashion, gifts for him & her, romantic/memorable vacation locations, and everything else that young people who are on a journey to being grown and sexy might find useful.

FYI: this is my first official “real” blog so there will undoubtedly be some growing pains… so please be forgiving

Now a little bit about me…

I am a 29 year old guy (as of 04/30/2009) living in the metro DC area who was born and raised in the metro Atlanta (born in ATL, lived in East Point, GA from ages 8-18) who has traveled to all 4 corners of the world, seen and experienced the best and some of the worst that the world has to offer. I am college educated ( FAMU class of 2003) , I have a wonderful son, I have broken my back as a blue collar worker, and I have facilitated meetings in corporate boardrooms and in cabinet level government organizations from coast to coast. At the time this blog is being created (05/19/2009) I am single. I love women, and women only…(but everyone is encouraged to come, experience, and participate in “hispointofview”) but I appreciate the finer things in life (whether I can use these things personally or not) and I want to share my world with you. Now some of the luxury items you will see here are far beyond my price range (for the moment) so I will not give you the impression that I consume all of these goods, but our time is coming soon.

Well enough talking… its time to get your dose of “HisPointofView”

Your man,

It's me snitches!!!!