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Beautiful! Congratulations!3. The final shoes
After yet another two months, Lu told me that the shoes were ready. Shipment from Mainland China to Hong Kong was by the usual SF Express. During the wait, Lu actually did a trunk show in Hong Kong in collaboration with Dashing House Menswear (https://www.dashinghousehk.com/), yet another young bespoke operation in Hong Kong. As I commissioned my pair before they announced the collaboration (as a significantly lower price), I did not attend the trunk show as a matter of principle.
The packaging was not luxurious, but decent enough (similar to many artisanal makers in Italy).
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Narrow waist as requested. The shoe price included triumph metal toe plate already - personally installed by Lu on the day before shipping.
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Tapered... and most importantly seamless heel.
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What surprised me was the fit. Perhaps I did not have too much of an expectation for such an e-bespoke process, the shoes actually fit surprisingly well.
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There was a little bit of excess leather over the vamp. Guess this can only be corrected in my next order.
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"Stretch marks" - @bamboo said it is quite commonly seen on seamless wholecuts.
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Lu said that his wife tried to polish the shoes before sending them to me. But as can be seen from previous photos, it was a matte shine at best. To show the nuanced museum colour better, I decided to give the shoes a wax-based polish (Berluti/ Avel clear wax, fawn wax, dark brown wax, Kiwi Parade Gloss, dark brown wax). Not yet mirror shine, but a passable high shine.
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Finally, a couple of photos comparing the Lu Yang bespoke shoe and Meccariello Aurum RTW, and shoes in actual wear:
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by the way how long did the whole process take?
Beautiful! Congratulations!
I invited a friend who has Yim to look as the shoes. He said Lu finishing is quite clearly better than Yim.
Guess it makes sense since Yim is operating at the single-pair MTO level with a small factory, whereas Lu is just himself and his wife at home - more flexibility and more individualised.
yup, any longer term update?
Damn, the price of these is ridiculous. I know Jimjun makes bespoke shoes for more than 10,000 CNY, that's 1400ish USD.
So, is this more of a negative reflection on LY, or a positive reflection on AM? Or neither and you've just not reached for them regularly?!Shoes are okay, but wearing AM too much lately, and LY don't get the deserved wear...
LY also increased his price a bit now, but there will be 2-3 pairs of fitting shoes.
Sharing some photos of my first trial fitting shoes from Lu Yang. All being done remote, but he does in-person fittings at trunk shows.
The last photo shows the cork outsole used for trial pairs.
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