Shoes advice, school me!

[ianGP]

I've recently just found this site and ever since I've just been reading countless threads and posts on shoes!

I'm ready to buy some new shoes and with all these news names I've just read about (C&J, G&G, etc) I don't know the price range too well and what else I can get. Point me to a direction! purdy please!


Background: I wear a suit & tie to work every day. My beater shoes have been my 7yr old Johnston Murphy captoes (burgundy & black) and I've recently purchased a pair of Bruno Magli Maioco in black for $200 and Moreschi brown nubucks for about the same price (I feel my best pairs yet)

The Bruno Magli's I have are in size 7D but there's space left on my heel if I force my foot all the way up the shoe - about quarter-inch or so. I'm thinking I should go with a 6.5D but there are not too many shoes at that size either....

Here's what I've been currently looking at:

Magnanni Romas
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/magnanni...-3133440-0-0-2

Magnanni Brujas
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/magnanni...-3099313-0-0-2

Dolce & Gabbana
http://www.bluefly.com/Dolce-Gabbana...301/detail.fly


The Magnanni's lowest size is 7 so I figure I could just suck it up but the Dolce&Gabbana goes down to 6.5

For a range of $300-$500 are there other shoes I should consider besides these?
I read people posting that you shouldn't pay more than %50 of retail for certain shoes (ie Magli's) but how do I do that? Is this a bargaining thing or do I just keep searching until someone marks their shoe prices down?


- I really like the sleek and slender look and I felt the AE's where just a smidgen too bulky for me.
- www.plal.com has C&J's but they're closer and above the $1k mark.
- I read about a guy name Schubert but the last post on his blog was back in 2006 and all the pics of his shoes are not working anymore.
- I don't know where to get half the shoes you guys talk about

I'm in Washington, D.C. and the only places I know of that carry high-end shoes are Sky Valet and Tyson's Galleria

 

[Quadcammer]

the C&J on plal are over 1000 in malaysian dollars, not us dollars.

Magnannis are built ok, but are not as durable (imho) as a goodyear welted shoe.

IN your price range, you can get C&J at any number of sites.

On the lower end, cheaney makes a few sleeker shoes, I have and like the ewan.

 

[Aldehyde]

plal doesn't really sell C&J anymore - only what they have in stock.

I would suggest pediwear.co.uk - located in the UK so prices in GBP, but prices are quite good even with shipping to the US (Free for C&J).

 

[herid]

Keep in mind that many Bruno Magli (maioco included) run pretty long. I've had to size down on them when I've tried them.

 

[ianGP]

Appreciate the input guys! The Magnanni's are comfortably in my price range and could get two for one C&J.... I'll have to contemplate that abit more. I'm currently leaning towards the Magnanni's since I'm just starting up my collection. I did, however, find this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Brand-new-Gazian...item4aaa1315a6 MargoandRalph in eBay are selling G&G's for $908 Too good to be true? I've been oogling at the G&G pics everytime I'm on here and I even have it as a background on my phone

It is definitely my grail shoes! It doesn't help that they have it in size 6UK! I'm tempted to just buy it now! I'll be over budget for the month but if this is considered a deal then I'm in

Thoughts on these sellers? Are the shoes legit? It seems the pattern on their 'Hughes' by the heel is different from the pics in Bespoke England Not much feedback from their ebay profile but they do have a webpage: http://www.margoandralph.com/boutiquemargoandralph/ and based on belgium.