My Cap Toes: The After

One of my new COVID hobbies is to catalog and taking stock of my stuff.  It’s like an episode of Hoarders at a department store.  Weird.  It’s not just clothes and shoes, but really everything.  Going through junk drawers is like a reckoning.  This could be a post all it’s own.

I’ve had quite a bit of luck with shoes on the secondary market.  Over the past couple of years, I’ve found some amazing shell cordovan loafers, more shell cordovan tassel loafers (you haven’t seen these yet…stay tuned), and these cap toes.  I always look for timeless designs that will never go out of style.  With a little patience and perseverance, some luck will come your way.

Even though the general office culture has gone casual, I’ve always maintained a certain minimum in my appearance.  I like wearing sport coats.  I like wearing dress shoes.  I use my iron a lot.  I know a lot of you do as well.  Then COVID hit and we’re all at home.  Enter the casual season.  Think of this period as a time when our nicer stuff has a chance to hibernate.

Then, I got a new gig at work.  An awesome new job.  A gig that is going to require me to dress up and travel a little more.  I’m super excited.

The new job element has put a different filter on my episode of Hoarders.  Under different circumstances, these cap toes would have sat on the shelf collecting dust.  Not because they aren’t great shoes, but because they weren’t needed.  Their issue was functional: the sole was splitting from the shoes (here are some before images).  They needed to be repaired before getting back in the lineup.  However, with the new gig, these needed to be called back up to the majors.

I sent these off to LaRossa for an up-do, and when they came back…as usual, they exceeded my expectations:

I love having these cap toes in the arsenal.  They are a very versatile pair of shoes that can be dressed up with trousers (mid grey, navy, tan) and a sport coat, or dressed down with well-fitting jeans.  These are great shoes to have on work trips.  I don’t see these getting packed up any time soon, but I feel like I’m making really good progress on a refined wardrobe.

Refining the wardrobe (and my stuff) is a liberating feeling.  It’s amazing how little I miss the stuff that doesn’t make the cut, and how much I like the stuff that I keep.  These older cap toes feel new again and fit right into that theme.  More to come.