• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Altering Shoe Color

lpresq

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
548
Reaction score
1
While there are plenty of shoes avail in tan or dark(er) brown, I'm having difficulty finding a pair in Chili/Burgundy to pair with a Navy suit. Is it a good idea, or even possible, to alter the color from beechnut or dark brown to burgundy? Hence, I would like to alter a pair of C&J Weymouths. Any tips would be much appreciated.
 

JeffsWood

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Messages
953
Reaction score
8
Don't take my advice here as I am interested in the answer to this question as you are. I can say that in recent years, I have stopped being anal about my shoe polish matching the shoe colour, and I rotate in a few diffrent shades of polish on some shoes. The result has been a slight variation in colour that is very rich. I would guess that it would take several polishing to have any major change in colour.
 

Cary Grant

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2008
Messages
9,657
Reaction score
430
Originally Posted by lpresq
While there are plenty of shoes avail in tan or dark(er) brown, I'm having difficulty finding a pair in Chili/Burgundy to pair with a Navy suit. Is it a good idea, or even possible, to alter the color from beechnut or dark brown to burgundy? Hence, I would like to alter a pair of C&J Weymouths. Any tips would be much appreciated.

Chili and burgundy or quite different colors, at least in AE lingo, with burgundy being much darker ala cordovan. Which did you mean?

Martegani's in "cognac":

42422m.jpg
 

base615

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2008
Messages
188
Reaction score
0
I recently used Kiwi dark tan polish on a tan pair of shoes which I think gave a nice rich colour with a red tinge. I did a moderate amount of spit shining and I think it's come up quite nice (although it needs re-doing now to go over the scratches)
shoe_1.jpg
 

MaxJones

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
170
Reaction score
1
Originally Posted by lpresq
While there are plenty of shoes avail in tan or dark(er) brown, I'm having difficulty finding a pair in Chili/Burgundy to pair with a Navy suit. Is it a good idea, or even possible, to alter the color from beechnut or dark brown to burgundy? Hence, I would like to alter a pair of C&J Weymouths. Any tips would be much appreciated.

I don't believe that changing the color of shoes isn't as difficult as you might think. I spent a few afternoons at Berluti and Lobb in Paris talking to the workers and watching them work, and when they changed the color of shoes it really didn't look too scary.
I even stripped and dyed a pair of Canali's a few years back. Originally they were beautiful but for their pimptasticly glowing-plum color. Now they are dark walnut and gorgeous, at least to me. I used acetone and rum to strip, Lincoln to dye, lots of conditioner, lots of cream and lots of wax. For me it was an interesting project and I'd encourage anyone with an interest in shoes to try it.
I'd be curious to hear what a pro like Marcel in Hungary would have to say.
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 55 35.5%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 60 38.7%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 17 11.0%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 27 17.4%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 28 18.1%

Forum statistics

Threads
505,161
Messages
10,578,996
Members
223,882
Latest member
anykadaimeni
Top