Whole-cut shoes

If you are looking for a great value on whole cuts, you should wait to buy until the new shipment of Grensons comes in in Feb.

I also love this look. I bought brown Crockett and Jones wholecuts but have not worn them yet. This week, I also tried on some wholecut Grensons at Paul Stuart which were on sale, and I was about a blink away from buying them. They had a medallion on the toe and were great. I don't know about Edward Green being value for money. They are amazing quality, but by any standard they are extremely expensive for a pair of shoes.

Grenson master piece that I have is Stowe and it is truly amazing shoes IMHO.  Leather is very soft, fits like it was made for me.  I would love to get hands on Felstead and Rugby. But I think Santoni handgrade shoes are the best looking whole cut shoes. ...

Wholecuts shouldn't be any more or less comfortable or durable than other styles of shoes, all other things being equal. They're also not more or less likely to get creased up easily, although creases that do develop are more apparent because there is no toe cap or wing cap to camouflage them. Well, EG certainly makes some of the highest-quality RTW shoes available, but I don't know whether their QPR is that great -- they're very expensive shoes at retail. Most of the English makers have a wholecut model. C&J's Weymouth has quite a reputation on this board, and deservedly so: Many of the Italian manufacturers also have a model. Here's a Gravati that I like:

I think that this might be true for the most part, but would have to disagree slightly regarding fit. I tried on some EG shoes a few months ago, and spoke with John Garner, one of the fitters there. I have a wide foot and a high arch. He had me try on a captoe in size 7.5 in the 888 last.  The shoe was tight across the bridge of the foot, and pinched my small toe. When I mentioned this, Mr. Garner said that the pieces of leather can only stretch as far as the distance between each seam, and recommended a whole cut.  He said that the fewer "stays" there are in a shoe upper, the more the leather will be able to stretch to accommodate the foot. This was an "Aha." moment for me. Last year I bought both the C&J  Weymouth (a wholecut) and the Belgrave (a captoe), each in the same size and on the 337 last.  They were initially very tight across the bridge of the foot and topo snug on the small toe, but the Weymouth loosened up much more quickly than the Belgrave did.   I attributed this to differences in the way the leather had been stretched across the last, but if Mr. Garner's advice is correct, a snug wholecut will be able to stretch more than a snug cap toe or wing tip. Bic

Bic - very interesting anecdote and advice. Thanks.

Alfred Sargent makes a non-brogued wholecut. They can be found on pediwear. Some people say the last isn't as elegant as other makers, but I like the leather and the inner finishing.

EG makes the Newbury. This is the only picture I could find, but it's a special order and the medallion on the toe was added. The default configuration is with no medallion.

Well, Grenson offers the Stowe, and I'm sure C&J and EG wholecuts can be special ordered without broguing.

I think these, from Shipton and Heneage, are rebadged versions of the Alfred Sargents. I think the brogued wholecut is... interesting. Also, while we're on... interesting wholecut shoes, the AE Fairfax is... interesting...

Church's New Yorker model is a completely plain whole cut. I have three pairs-two in black and one in brown. See: http://www.churchsshoes.com/TEMPLAT....roup=84

I was going to say earlier, I was sure Church's had a wholecut, but since I had only ever seen them in a thrift store I didn't know if they were still available. I know Church's get ranked on here pretty hard, but they did look pretty nice to my untrained eye. Edit: BTW, and no offense meant to anyone who has/likes those AEs above, but those are truly hideous, IMO.

I have a pair of westerburys. I like them, but I have to say that they have developed a pretty big crack after only about 7-8 years of wear.