What do you know about poulsen skone?

so the dunhill in my city is closing up shop (as are all in the u.s. excpet for ny), and i bought a pair of poulsen skone shoes for half price. what does anyone know about this manufacturer? all i can figure out is that they are owned by new and lingwood. i heard a rumor that they are made by edward greed - any truth to this? any stories about pairs owned?

The venerable firm of Poulsen Skone was taken over by New & Lingwood sometime in the 1970s. (They probably bought the name cheaply as the firm has gone out of business.) From the late 70s to his death in 1991 the famous George Cleverley worked on a consultancy basis for the company. By then Cleverley was not only very old, but also very grand and apparently, Cleverley who had started working life as a barrow boy in Edwardian London, would make any lord of the realm look "common as muck". A few years back New and Lingwood decided to revive some of the Cleverley designs and produce a range of superior shoes under the Poulsen Skone label, they are manufactured by Edward Green: http://www.newandlingwood.com/iashop.....gory=16 I do not know that N & L or PS shoes are distributed wholesale but if you are able to buy them in a Dunhill shop, they must be. I don't think they would create a separate line just for export. (After all Poulsen Skone is no a very well known name.) Therefore, I presume Edward Green has made your shoes as well.

While Poulsen Skone is now owned by New and Lingwood, they are still an individual company with its own design department, marketing department, etc..  

Right now, Poulsen Skone has two lines: the dress shoes, which are manufactured by Edward Green, and the casual shoes, which are only made for Dunhill by an Italian factory.  What New and Lingwood carries are totally different from what Dunhill carries.  The New and Lingwood models are the 'old' models that are staple collections --- which they have been selling for some years now and will always remain (so the best time is to find them on sale now), they are a merge between Green and updated Cleverley;  the Dunhill models are custom ordered by Dunhill on a different last.  The Italian models are the rubber soles and the casual mules, which are selling much cheaper than the dress shoes.

Mr. Bengal Stripes: Poulsen Skone is actually trying to make a 'come back', as they are aggressively promoting their shoes through Dunhill, which is their main distribution point right now.  The shoe department in the Hong Kong Dunhill store (Nathan Road) is a shoe store in itself, and they are selling steadily.  We will see how Dunhill will revive this old English shoemaker's name.

I'm London based, so I'm not aware what goes on outside these isles (if things are different.). Dunhill in London (two stores) does not sell shoes, neither are they mentioned on the website. A few years ago they had a few ranges (made by Alfred Sargent), the majority ended up in the sale. I still have a pair (bought at half price)  in 1999 or 2000: basically a copy of J.M. Weston's house style loafer.

I presume Dunhill operates similar than other multiple retailers where the local managers have the pick from the wholesale collection: they can stock everything or leave out certain items they feel they cannot sell. Whether the shoe shop in the Dunhill Hong Kong get their supply from the Dunhill wholesale catalogue or are in effect more or less an independent franchise I do not know. Both are possibilities.

I've only been the other day in the New & Lingwood shop, there they stock under the Poulsen Skone name only the Edward Green made, Cleverley designed shoes as seen on the website. No rubber soles or anything casual. I remember reading, maybe a year ago, an interview with New & Lingwwod's MD, where he stated that he wanted to market the label wholesale and eventually establish an international presence. Maybe they sold or leased the Poulsen Skone label on to some Italian shoe manufacturer who is also owned by the current owners of Dunhill (French owned the last time I looked). Sometimes you have venerable, historical names flying about, without any backing by a shop, let alone production facilities in real life. Peal & Co, Alan McAffee, Washington Tremlett (there must be others) spring to mind. With so many things virtual these days, why not have virtual brands? Maybe one day they might even want to revive the name Sulka.

Anyone having an idea on current offering by Dunhill. Spotted a wholecut in one of their stores selling for around 550 USD. The Soles read 'Hand made in italy'. Many thanks

Originally Posted by bengal-stripe

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I'm London based, so I'm not aware what goes on outside these isles (if things are different.). Dunhill in London (two stores) does not sell shoes, neither are they mentioned on the website.

They do have occasional models - they show up in the factory store in Bicester.

Originally Posted by bengal-stripe

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Dunhill in London (two stores) does not sell shoes, neither are they mentioned on the website.

Originally Posted by SimonC

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They do have occasional models - they show up in the factory store in Bicester.

Dunhill in London does offer shoes, at present..................but they did not seven years ago.

So would Green have made Poulsen dress shoes in 1992? I have a pair in storage (so I can't look at them) bought from Barneys before I really knew anything about shoes.

Had shoes made by Poulsen Skone in 1983. They were fantastic. Worked with John Carnera who was currently with Cleverly but I think has retired

Poulsen Skone shoes aren't made by Edward Green, otherwise they'd be quite a bit more expensive.

I bought a few pairs last year from New & Lingwood, and according to the salesman, they were made by Alfred Sargent and Grenson.

See bengal-stripe's post from 2003. I am interested in shoes made 20 years ago, not now.



brokentelephone said:

Poulsen Skone shoes aren't made by Edward Green, otherwise they'd be quite a bit more expensive.

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At one time Poulsen Skone/New & Lingwood shoes were made by Edward Green, maybe from the mid-80s to mid-90s. But EG hasn't worked for N&L for a considerable time.

Those Poulsen Skone from 1992 could very well be Edward Green.



89826 said:

See bengal-stripe's post from 2003. I am interested in shoes made 20 years ago, not now.

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Without spacing and paragraphs I think it's a bit impossible to read any of the posts in this thread.



brokentelephone said:

Without spacing and paragraphs I think it's a bit impossible to read any of the posts in this thread.

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Those paragraphs must have gotten lost, as over the years the contents of this forum had numerous server changes.
At one change, maybe '94, we had the 'big melt-down' where thousands and thousands of postings got lost.



bengal-stripe said:

At one time Poulsen Skone/New & Lingwood shoes were made by Edward Green, maybe from the mid-80s to mid-90s. But EG hasn't worked for N&L for a considerable time.
Those Poulsen Skone from 1992 could very well be Edward Green.

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I have pair of Dunhill Poulsens that are C&J benchgrade.