The brotherhood of traveling pants and shoes are in San Francisco this week. Until the end of today, Salvatore Ambrosi and Philip Car are holding trunk shows at The Wingtip. I stopped by yesterday morning to see them.
This is Ambrosi’s first trip to San Francisco in seven years. After what seemed like a meteoric rise at The London Lounge and StyleForum, the bespoke trouser maker ran into a few controversies with the same clients who initially sang praises of his work. I don’t know if those issues were ever resolved, but current clients are happy, so I decided to try a couple of pairs for myself. Bespoke trousers, of course, are a lot more straightforward than bespoke jackets – as they have less internal construction – but there are subtle nuances in the ways that the legs and waist are cut that can affect the silhouette. I’m looking forward to seeing what Salvatore makes, as the other stuff I’ve seen online and in person have been beautiful.
Philip Car was also on site showing his range of Saint Crispin’s shoes, which I think are the nicest around, short of going full bespoke. It’s confusing, but the terms that other companies use – such as “handgrade” and “benchgrade” – don’t actually mean the shoes were made by hand or on a bench. They’re just ways of denoting different levels of quality, such as “Gold” or “Platinum” Amex cards. Any shoe that was made with a Goodyear or Blake stitch is essentially a machine-made shoe (although, like Seinfeld said, not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Saint Crispin’s, however, are as about as handmade as you can get. The leathers are all handcut, rather than machine punched, which allows the worker to better account for the grain of the leather and ensure that the material will yield finer creases. Certain skins are also handstained, which allow them to age a bit more uniquely than “factory” tanned leathers. And, of course, the lasting and welting process are all done by hand. There’s some debate on whether handwelting is meaningfully better than machine welting, but I think everyone agrees that the first method is at least more traditional and artisanal, which for an enthusiast, have their own value.
Philip tells me that he’ll be back at the Wingtip every six months, so the next visit should be in March sometime. Salvatore, on the other hand, is coming back every two months (at least for the next year), which means if you order a pair today, you can be fitted in early December and receive your finished garment by Christmas. Going into 2015 in a new pair of pants sounds good to me.
