Black calf on the Finsbury is left flat and even. There is no burnishing at the toe and no shading round the heel counter, so the shoe carries one uniform depth from the cap back to the collar. That is usually what a black shoe is bought to do: sit under a dark trouser without drawing the eye down. It also takes wax more predictably than a shaded finish, because there is no tonal work to preserve and nothing to polish out by accident.
The pattern is a capped derby. The quarters are stitched over the vamp rather than tucked beneath it, four eyelets a side, with a straight cap across the toe. A fine row of punched dots follows the cap seam and the edges of the facings, and that is all the decoration there is.
Open lacing is the practical part. A derby opens further across the instep than an Oxford can, which matters if your foot is high through the middle or you are on it all day. Capped and in black, it does most of the work a plain Oxford does without the fit being fixed at the throat.
Sizes run UK 6 to 12, with half sizes through to 10.5; 11 and 12 are whole sizes only. F is the standard fitting across John White's range, their standard width. The shoe is designed in Northamptonshire, where John White set up in 1919 at thirty-five, after around twenty years in the trade, much of it cutting uppers as a clicker.
John White's own specification gives the construction: Blake stitch, on a leather sole. A Blake is a single row of stitching worked from inside the shoe to hold the sole on, without the rib a welt is built around, which is why it usually feels the more flexible of the two early on. John White's own position is that neither construction is inherently better than the other and that both can be repaired, so a cobbler set up for Blake work can take this sole off and stitch a fresh one on. The warmer option is the Finsbury in brown calf.
Care: Wipe the dust off after wearing and use black wax every few weeks, working it into the punched holes with a small brush and taking the excess out before it dries white. Cedar trees keep the vamp creases shallow.
You can ask any question about this product.
Our specialists will answer you shortly!
Black calf on the Finsbury is left flat and even. There is no burnishing at the toe and no shading round the heel counter, so the shoe carries one uniform depth from the cap back to the collar. That is usually what a black shoe is bought to do: sit under a dark trouser without drawing the eye down. It also takes wax more predictably than a shaded finish, because there is no tonal work to preserve and nothing to polish out by accident.
The pattern is a capped derby. The quarters are stitched over the vamp rather than tucked beneath it, four eyelets a side, with a straight cap across the toe. A fine row of punched dots follows the cap seam and the edges of the facings, and that is all the decoration there is.
Open lacing is the practical part. A derby opens further across the instep than an Oxford can, which matters if your foot is high through the middle or you are on it all day. Capped and in black, it does most of the work a plain Oxford does without the fit being fixed at the throat.
Sizes run UK 6 to 12, with half sizes through to 10.5; 11 and 12 are whole sizes only. F is the standard fitting across John White's range, their standard width. The shoe is designed in Northamptonshire, where John White set up in 1919 at thirty-five, after around twenty years in the trade, much of it cutting uppers as a clicker.
John White's own specification gives the construction: Blake stitch, on a leather sole. A Blake is a single row of stitching worked from inside the shoe to hold the sole on, without the rib a welt is built around, which is why it usually feels the more flexible of the two early on. John White's own position is that neither construction is inherently better than the other and that both can be repaired, so a cobbler set up for Blake work can take this sole off and stitch a fresh one on. The warmer option is the Finsbury in brown calf.
Care: Wipe the dust off after wearing and use black wax every few weeks, working it into the punched holes with a small brush and taking the excess out before it dries white. Cedar trees keep the vamp creases shallow.
You can ask any question about this product.
Our specialists will answer you shortly!
