Vintage Edward Green for New & Lingwood: The Braemar

Edward Green Falkirk for New & Lingwood - the camera flash gives the leather a reddish hue.

As many of you already know, I'm a big fan of Edward Green's Falkirk. The combination of intricate brogue work and the wingtip pattern is basically a must-have for me. I'd recently come across an early to mid-1980s Edward Green catalog - one page had pictures of my two favorite models: the Windsor and the Braemar, which is apparently identical to the modern Falkirk but with a floral motif punched into the side of the uppers, just under the laces.

I recently got into a discussion on the history of the Falkirk on Style Forum. As some of the more experienced members theorized, Edward Green used to have Falkirk model with the intricate broguing, including the floral motif. At some point, perhaps when John Hlustik took over the company, the old Falkirk's name was changed to the Braemar (you can view the vintage catalog here). Still later, a new Falkirk was created - this shoe was identical to the Braemar, sans floral motif (you can view an old post of mine on my Falkirk's here).

All of this is very confusing but only mildly interesting, but I bring it up to explain why I'm referring to these shoes as Braemars.

In any event, I recently came across a vintage pair of Braemars in very good condition. The soles and heels are original - if you look closely enough, you can just make out Edward Green's cursive "Made In England" on the waist) - and don't appear to be in need of a resole.

The uppers are in excellent condition - the broguing is still immaculate - and there are still no rips, tears, or scratches to the leather. Sometimes, the leather on shoes of this age will be a bit dry and stiff. To restore some of the leather's life, I treated the shoes with Saphyr's Renovateur - over a 72 hour period, the leather restorer was vigorously rubbed into the uppers on a daily basis, every 24 hours. On the next day, I polished the shoes with Saphyr's medium brown cream polish. I thought this gave the shoes a darker, less reddish hue.

These vintage Edward Green shoes feature metal eyelets, which were a popular treatment of the era. In contrast to more recent offerings, the soles don't feature much of a bevelled waist; on the other hand, the shoes still have the original channeled soles. I'm not entirely sure of the color - if I had to guess, I'd say the shoes were originally a dark oak color that was polished using a mahogany or burgundy polish.

The New & Lingwood stamp is still visible on the inner sole of the shoes. Luckily, the pair came with the original shoe bags.

This particular pair of shoes were made on the 201 - a now defunct last that apparently was a pre-cursor to the iconic 202 last. Whatever the differences, when looking at these lasts side-by-side, one gets the sense that it must little more than a tweak, as both designs feature a round shape and a generous toe box.

I have purchased shoes on the 201 last before, and my experience has been that they're generally a bit smaller that the listed size. So a US 10D is always a bit snug than I'd like. So I purchased these shoes, which happened to be in a size UK10E, with the belief that it might be a better fit. Unfortunately, the shoes are a bit too loose for my feet, so I've decided to put them up for sale - you can view the auction here. Hopefully, an aficionado who is closer to a true size US10.5E will put these to good use in the future!