Alessandro Gasparinimake quality loaves that are small and simple: Blake is tailor-made, but with ingredients that match the likes of Edward Green or John Lobb.
That’s probably the most important thing to say first, since the prices can seem high compared to other loafers put together by Blake or Belgians: leather models are £ 545 and suede £ 525. That price is mainly due to the quality of the materials and construction, rather than being the mark of a great designer.
Interestingly, however, Gasparini’s background is in marketing, having been a shoe designer for various brands over the years, including Dunhill. Like a few new outfits we recently put together –August Special,Museum Clothing– he comes to this with knowledge, which is why the product feels complete, rather than a work in progress.
Another thing I need to do in advance is that I have a pair (thesmooth black skinabove) and have been wearing them regularly for the past three months. The fit is probably the best I’ve ever had in a low-vamp loafer like this, and they were instantly comfortable.
I took my usual shoe size – 9 UK, 43 EU – and apart from a little biting at the joint of my big toe, which happens to me regularly, they fit very well. I wore them consistently during Pitti (when they’re shown here – I have a cotton suit on top and my Whitcomb cotton jacket below) and they’ve done really well.
My small heel means I tend to slip a lot, especially on something like the Alden, but here it was very little. Of course, this is personal and depends on your foot, but hopefully the experience helps to get an idea of what the shape is like.
Gasparini worked to design both women’s and men’s shoe lines, but as often happens with these startups, he struggled to find the shoes he wanted.
“That was partly because of the size of my feet,” she says. “I’m a size 6 and very few people go down that far. But also, I liked the 1980s styles in particular, Ralph Lauren’s of the time with the low neckline.”
The throat line, I learned, is what bespoke shoemakers call the top line – the top of the shoe around the ankle and the sides of the foot. This is quite a step down in Gasparini’s shoes, although I would say it’s not noticeable. The low vamp – how far the front of the shoe extends down your foot – is very noticeable.
“It felt fresh to me, it showed more,” he says. “I didn’t want to make them look old or old, from a certain time, fresh and beautiful.
I’ve been wearing a pair of vintage 1980’s Ralph Lauren loafers a lot since I found them on eBay a few years ago, quite by accident – they’re the ones pictured above, and they were in this article about wearing black shoes with jeans..
The style is a little more casual and feminine, although that’s also nice – most of those 80s suits that were considered masculine were worn with narrow, low-vamp Italian shoes.
And I got both my old Ralphs and these very wearable Gasparinis. In fact, probably the most wearable are the Belgian loafers from Baudoin & Lange and some of the most popular of the last 15 years or so. They feel very simple and familiar.
The Gasparini loafer has nothing new in itB&L Saganbut I don’t find it that comfortable. This is partly due to the quality of the materials – the full leather sock and lining is really good even on bare leather – but there is a thin layer of padding on the insole.
“At first I made shoes in Milan, because it was easy – I flew home to Como from London all the time, so I could stop and see them,” Gasparini said. “But they made a lot of women’s shoes there, and you could feel that they were very perfect and very delicate.
He moved production to a small workshop in Marche, which makes more men’s shoes, and chose: “The attitude towards women’s clothing is to keep things clean and perfect, but for men it’s about the art of making things look better with age, which I love.”
He kept some of the elements from those original designs. For example, suede loafers have an inverted hem at the top line, so there is no visible seam. I like that as a detail, mostly because it’s subtle.
Gasparini used a blake-stitched sole to get the minimal look he wanted, but he likes the Goodyear welt, and there will be future styles in that style. He also insisted on a hidden channel alone, so that the texture is not visible, which makes it even better.
I got the black smooth leather model because I know how much I wore the Ralph’s oncemy EG Piccadilly loaferswith that color.
Compared to the Edward Green (or other English Goodyear-welted style) Gasparini loafers are a little more casual and easier to wear with warm weather pieces, like linen pants – but I’d say the difference is really a style choice.
It used to be that loafers like these were commonly referred to as Italian loafers, because many were from Italian manufacturers or brands – whereas English and American shoes were lighter and chunkier. The distinction is less obvious these days, but that’s still a good way to think about style. It’s a choice question, and you probably don’t need either. Although of course there is no stopping.
Alessandro Gasparini shoes are only available nowhis website; the only wholesale is in Japan. The shoes run true to size and Simon wears his usual size 9 UK.
The cotton suit shown above is from Luca Museo and will be reviewed separately. The white cotton jacket is from Whitcomb & Shaftesbury and has been covered extensively recently in two articles,hereagainhere.