John Lobb in Geneva

John Lobb's Geneva shop

1960s euro cart included with your purchase of any prestige line shoes.

          After months of unreturned phone calls, texts, tweets, and bleets, intermittent postcards from London and Barcelona (always just a hastily drawn happy face, no text), or, better yet, the unconfirmed sightings from mutual acquaintances who were sure that it was her backstage at Fashion Week in Paris or positive that it could only be her sauntering nonchalantly through the galleries at Pitti Uomo in Milan, The Uptown Dandy's European correspondent, Jessica Butler, was kind enough to send along some wonderful photos from John Lobb's Switzerland outpost.

          In town to attend a conference at the Université de Genève on Metaphysics and Values (this was explained to me, with slow and precise enunciation reminiscent of the Reverend Al Sharpton, as essentially whether or not the whole of something might be more valuable than it's parts). Despite being absolutely pre-occupied for the remainder of her visit by the tall, rather dashing American lecturing on Diachronic Composition (see the abstract for his seminar here), Ms. Butler did eventually manage to wander off to the Rue du Rhone to peruse the luxury district.

          Perhaps the Lobb name had stuck in her mind because I had once dragged her into the St. James shop in London a few years ago (she has also seen my small collection of Lobbs in person and has always listened to my excited rants with patience and a friendly smile). But Jessica Butler is one of the few Americans to have made the pilgrimage to Northampton and its shoe factories (I can only assume such a monumental undertaking was done willingly), so it is more than likely that, like The Uptown Dandy, the name Lobb holds a special place in her heart.

          In any event, armed with her Cannon and a lightweight prime lens (35mm f2), Jessie took some great pictures of the luxury distruct, which is just outside the remains of the old city on the shores of Lake Geneva. It sounds very peaceful for a high-end shipping district, a complete contrast to Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on a weekday afternoon. . .

The ubiquitous JL City II in some kind of museum calf. The price tag says 1580 (swiss francs, I guess)

The current double-monk craze has apparently hit Switzerland hard as well. I was originally infected, bled from my eyes for five days, but the worst has passed and I feel much better now.

Loafer in crocodile. No price tag anywhere near this one.

Like JP Morgan said, if you need to ask, you can't afford it.

I've never seen Lobb heeled galoshes before, but they look fantastic of course!

Many thanks to Jessie Butler for the wonderful photos :-)