Churchs on eBay

[cloud9eleet]

http://tinyurl.com/5zx93 Good deal?

 

[NoVaguy]

It's not a "bad deal", but it looks like it's corrected grain. I think Church's, in the post-Prada age, has been doing a lot of work with corrected grain.

I'll rather pay $150 for a pair of Allen Edmonds, or 220-250 for a pair of C&J benchgrades (just make sure that it isn't a calvary calf C&J), before I drop 220-250 on a pair of post prada Church's.

 

[j]

Agreed - I have seen quite a few of these newer corrected grain Church's and the leather is really sad. I imagine it looks good for a while but it crinkles up and flakes off easily from what I've seen. Does not wear well at all.

 

[johnapril]

The grain-corrected leather of Prada's dress shoes is used for its intentional visual effect: it's "fakeness" is part of the look. If you ever saw MC's 2004 ad campaign, any of the magazine ads, the photos were heavily doctored to appear like something out of the 1950s, all the way down to the look of the people's skin, waxy, they appear to be mannequins. The finish on many of her clothes, especially her suits, is made to appear this way. The use of crepe wool with a percentage of lycra achieves this effect, as does grain-corrected leather for shoes. Prada's dress shoes often seem mismatched with more classic fabrics. Like it or not, know that it is a conscious choice of materials, as with nearly everything Prada does, not necessarily a use of less durable materials to cut costs. I cannot speak for Church's abuse of the material.

 

[Vintage Gent]

I know the auction has ended, but Church's runs sales fairly often, in which you can get their shoes at a price not much higher.

 

[LA Guy]

The grain-corrected leather of Prada's dress shoes is used for its intentional visual effect: it's "fakeness" is part of the look. If you ever saw MC's 2004 ad campaign, any of the magazine ads, the photos were heavily doctored to appear like something out of the 1950s, all the way down to the look of the people's skin, waxy, they appear to be mannequins. The finish on many of her clothes, especially her suits, is made to appear this way. The use of crepe wool with a percentage of lycra achieves this effect, as does grain-corrected leather for shoes. Prada's dress shoes often seem mismatched with more classic fabrics. Like it or not, know that it is a conscious choice of materials, as with nearly everything Prada does, not necessarily a use of less durable materials to cut costs.

Thank you, someone else gets it. Ahhh... contentment for a moment.

 

[j]

That's fine for Prada, but the Church's leather really sucks, IMO. When I have seen these they typically have pieces of the outer layer flaked off. It's not done for any kind of effect in this case - it's just bad.

Interesting info about the Prada stuff though. I had seen the campaign but don't see much of the actual products to catch the unified vision.

 

[johnapril]

I was offered shirts and a pair of shoes to go with the last suit I bought from Prada; I took the shirts but not the shoes. Now I wish I had taken it all, plus the cashmere topcoat. Everything went perfectly together.

I bought a pair of Johnston & Murphy demi-boots in 2000 that had leather that cracked as j describes. The finish on those boots was antiqued, but the leather was very thin. Could it have been grain-corrected with a pattern applied to it? I had to throw those mothers out a year later, they simply fell apart. I'd never seen anything like that happen, not even with Banana Republic shoes.

 

[JohnMS]

Call one of the Church's stores and ask about that particular shoe in the color shown. Could be one of the stores has leftover stock from the days of old. I bought all my Church's shoes from them at $99 per pair. Their term for corrected grain is bookbinder calf. Stay clear of it.