Who makes dress shoes for Barba?

[Keith Taylor]

Hi folks. Long time lurker, very occasional poster here.

A few days ago I stumbled across a pair of monkstraps from Barba Napoli while browsing eBay. I've never worn monkstraps and have never really considered a pair before, but I decided to pull the trigger on these because I love my Barba shirts, and I'm assuming that a company with a reputation for quality in one area is unlikely to skimp on its peripheral offerings. Also, and perhaps more importantly, nobody else was bidding and I only had to pay $22 + shipping, so why not take a shot?

I usually like to do a little research before making a speculative purchase like this, but when I turned to Google I was surprised to find virtually zero references to Barba shoes. Barba's current collection only includes sneakers and espadrilles. Google Images is a ghost town, and the only reference I could find to their dress shoes was a two year old Styleforum classified ad for a pair of very striking coral pink suede loafers. The lack of any kind of internet presence is... eerie.

So, does anyone have any info about these things while I wait for them to arrive? I'm guessing that Barba farmed production out to another company, but I'm not familiar enough with the Italian shoemakers to hazard a guess from the pictures alone. Any ideas?

 

[Stilig]

Looks like they could be from Di Mella, a neapolitan shoe factory in the mid-price range. Their standard offering is pretty decent quality from what I've gathered. I've heard that they used to make shoes for Kiton as well, but I imagine those were to a higher standard than these. There are loads of small shoe factories in Italy though, so it's really hard to say for certain where these were made.

 

[Keith Taylor]

Thanks for the info, Stilig I was secretly hoping I’d stumbled on a rebranded high end shoe, but for $22 I’ll cheerfully take a mid-range Di Mella