Good choice, get some photos here!
Wiz,
A long post to thank everyone on this thread, including you, for helping me.
I don't know anything about shoes so I ran the advice I received here through a qualitative / quantitative analysis, based on;
- cost per wear
- comfort
- cut (shape of shoe)
- construction
On cost per wear, I decided to spend above SGD$450 to get access to longer lasting features. Am expecting shoe life in rotation to go 5+ years vs my experience of 3 years for shoes less than SGD$450. I also factored in topied soles and lasted shoe trees because I selected special shapes (see below) and the normal shoe trees wont fit / will distort the shoe.
On comfort, my foot is exactly UK 9.5 but slightly wide so I tried on where possible, sized up half size for narrower lasts and checked return policy when buying on line.
If I am going to drop +$450 on a shoe I want something special so I went for strongly profiled but conservative not dandy if you know what I mean.
I don't really know much about construction so, for me just general quality impression and finishing plus extra points for hand welted so I can get them resoled if necessary.
I looked at 10 brands and shortlisted Antonio Meccariello, Vass and Bonafe with the condition that I pick them up on special wherever possible
I will post two of the models I bought because I thought a comparison might be useful;
- Vass U last black oxford captoe, size 10UK, hand welted, on special at Jeeves for SGD$699 inc lasted trees, since reduced to about SGD$659
- Bonafe mid brown 946 oxford adelaide captoe, size 9.5UK, handwelted on special at Seamless Bespoke SGD$618 incl lasted trees at SGD$120
I have some pics in Singapore conditions which I will post just as soon I figure out how.
To be continued .......