The winter shoe mission: first up, Monks.

Published on July 21, 2011 in Awesome Things, Menswear, Oh., Rant and Shoes. 19 Comments

Image/thethreef.com

I need winter shoes. This crazy, rainy weather does not support canvas sneakers. It does not support sandals even when combined with socks, it does not support any styles of shoes I own except for two pairs. This is not positive. This current predicament has lead me on a bit of a winter shoe mission, which has lead me to ask the following questions:

1. Can I wear monks?

I know they’re very, very, next-level menswear-ish, but I’m kind of into it. I feel like I could wear them all winter with cuffed pants and tights and everything, and with socks and dresses in summer too. Or maybe even without socks, you know? Am I deluded? The thing is, I think only very special men can actually pull off the monk-strap, and going by that theory, it’s probably even harder for a girl to do so. I’ve thought about this a lot. It’s difficult, because on the one hand, you could look awesome:

Image/thesartorialist.blogspot.com

…and on the other hand, you could really just look like a boy. But not in that good way. You would have to be wearing the perfect-est pair of monks and exuding the most extreme levels of femininity and confidence to avoid looking like some kind of awkward, badly put together man. There’s nothing worse than people mistaking you for a boy, even if you are dressed in menswear. As stupid as it sounds, the allure of girls wearing boys clothes is not so that they look like an actual boy.

But when it’s good, it’s oh so good.

So what to do? What do you think? I really want to say yes, I really want the answer to be yes, but even if the answer is yes, it still brings me to the following question:

2. Where does one purchase said pair of double monks for a girl?

After a pseudo-extensive Google search*, I have come to the conclusion that if you’re going to do it, you’re going to have to buy men’s monks. Good girl ones don’t seem to exist. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of bad girl ones – the kind with heaps of details, weird toe shapes and all sorts of things to make them more ‘lady-like’ – but that’s not what I want.

So men’s monks. There are plenty of them around, but all seem to come with a pretty high price-tag. I thought I had found the perfect pair in these Run Of The Mill ones, until I’d realised they’ve sold out:

Image/runofthemillshop.com

Then I thought I’d found the perfect alternative in these John Lobb’s, until I found out they retail at US$1275.00… (I know the exchange rate is good at the moment, but it’s not that good.):

Pretty, aren't they??! Image/johnlobb.com

My third option was this Ovadia & Sons pair, but they have 1. finished their pre-order, and 2. only go down to a Men’s US size 8 which could be okay, but perhaps too risky when considering the US$595.00 price-tag:

Image/ovadiaandsons.com

So the mission continues and the questions remain unanswered. If anyone can help me out, enlighten me with their monks/double monks knowledge, or has any great opinions on the matter (maybe you think monks on females are a really, really bad idea?), let me know in the comments!

Here I leave you with the inspiration behind this post – the best double monks photo I have ever seen:

Image/thethreef.com

*Thanks for the help, Die Workwear and L.A.S!

19 Responses to “The winter shoe mission: first up, Monks.”

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