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Sorry false report from Mr Herb Lester I’m afraid – see comments below. Herb is much apologetic, but easy mistake to make – the ‘Tobacco Suede’ are the colour of loden cloth, whereas the Loden Suede are so dark green as to be almost black. Go figure.
My Loden Green desert boots arrived from the USA last week after the usual theft by HMRC of 20% of the dollar amount taxed as if it were GBP. Anyway, that aside, the colour is great but they also suffer from a trait that I remember from the last pair of Loden I bought (which was in 1983!). That is the suede is like concrete. Almost as if to get that dark, dark green they have to spray the suede with colour. The result is a rigid boot, far from the soft comfortable tobacco pair I picked up in Clarks’ sale recently.
Hopefully they will break in.
Good news also for those who can’t be bothered with buying from Ebay USA, the Clarks store opposite Aquascutum in Regent St (remember Peter Lord?) has a ‘pop-up shop’ (Stupid, I know. Why the hell are they not selling the full range of Clarks Originals in the flagship stores anyway?) where you can pick up the desert boot in Loden, presumably for a limited time.
Also Office are currently stocking the nice cola colour (that Clarks seem have dropped again) but without the horrible table cloth lining – downside is they stock full sizes only.
Our very own up-beat intellectual colleague Mr Herb Lester, visited the pop up shop last week and let me know. He did say that he wasn’t a fan of the Loden himself due to their prevalance amongst Italian tourists milling about outside his Bloomsbury office. I have to disagree with him there, without our Italian friends the Clarks Desert Boot would have been consigned to history decades ago.
Oh yes – God bless the Italians. You still see all ages wearing Clarks dessies over there. They never abandoned them. Always stick with the classics. Nobody does it like the Italians. They invented casual elegance. Took the rigidity out of US Ivy and gave it that softer lived in look. I’ve seen plenty of guys in their 60s/70s doing the old blue oxford b/d, Barracuta G9, navy cords and cola Clarks combo. Fantastic. True style.
Indeed, John. Was chatting with Herb today about all those great ‘old man’s’ stores you find in Italy where they still stock all that stuff year in year out.
Just a heads up. There are no lodens in regent st. Only the wax green millerain fabric. The staff said they never had them? back to ebay usa! peace
That’s so funny Coltrane – I was in there when I saw your comment on my iphone. I’m afraid Mr Lester (who is not usually wrong about these things) mistook the tobacco for the loden. I bought a pair of the tobacco ones from Clarks site at Christmas for £34.99 and swiftly changed the laces to olive ones, but they are very green for something called tobacco. However, the tobacco pair are SUPER soft, like the sand ones, whereas my loden from the USA are rigid. Some nice blisters from those today….
I did pick up the cola in 9.5 for the simple reason no one stocks half sizes and Clarks themselves no longer carry cola online.
Had to wade my way through a throng of indie fans as the store had been taken over for a live gig of some forgettable NME types. Not enough that you can only buy these shoes at a temp store but you can’t even buy them in comfort!
Someone should write a little guide book, or do a map, of those old gent’s shops in Italy. Herb Lester?
Good Idea John!
Herb and I were discussing that very subject last week over a coffee…
Massive fan of desert boots. Found Clarks to be a bit samey so dug out some really cool colourful suede options from Arthur Knight. My bright yellow boots by them are my fav!
Do me a favour. How much is Gibbs paying you for comment spam?