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Would you wear it? The Wholecut Oxford

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Allen Edmonds Hanover Whole-Cut Oxford – $254.93 ($345)

Available at the discounted price in Bourbon via Amazon. Sizes are starting to dry up though.

Stitches and seams? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ STITCHES AND SEAMS!! (or, accuracy when it comes to quoting cinema and/or literature either).

Wholecuts aren’t for everybody. Like the ship in Flight of the Navigator, the seamless body of a wholecut looks equal parts elegant… and alien. A pair of black wholecuts look incredible with a tuxedo, but what about brown, like this bourbon shade from Allen Edmonds, with everything from suits to jeans and a sportcoat?

Hanover wholes

The wholecut name is pretty self-explanatory. Instead of multiple pieces of leather being stitched together to make the upper, these are cut from just one piece. The result is a hyper-clean look. But plenty of wholecuts still make use of punching and perforations. The now extinct Allen Edmonds Fairfax did this with sweeping wingtip-like perfs and a medallion on the toe. But not the Hanover. These are a total blank slate. Undisturbed pond-surface smooth. They even minimized how many eyelet holes they had to punch. Three instead of the usual five or six.

Built on the 333 last, the Hanover is elongated and has the chisel-like toe of the recently discontinued Neumora Double Monk, the Franciscan Single Monk, and the crazy expensive Rutledge oxford. Some will appreciate the sharper toe since it gives the body of the shoe a little more purpose. It makes them look a little less like a blank canvas of a basic business shoe, and instead more like a “oh, they meant to do this” higher style option. Plenty will disagree there, since chisels are anything but universally enjoyed.

Hanover wholes and soles

Sizing is pretty true, but being that this is a 333 last, the silhouette is real trim. So if you’re a borderline wide foot, you’re going to want to head in that direction. Leather is unusually soft. Even more so than other Allen Edmonds calf shoes. Not sure if they switched a supplier for this shoe, or maybe this batch of leather is just extra flexible. It’s something. Available in black and bourbon with plenty of sizes/widths over at Allen Edmonds, or, at a discount in Bourbon via Amazon.

So would you? Or is this less-is-more approach so “less” that it’s become not just more, but too much? It’s awfully hard to ignore a pair of whole-cuts. Especially when they come in a can’t-miss shade like the new Bourbon calf from Allen Edmonds.

Hanover three quaters and water

Note #1: Allen Edmonds is running an extra 25% off clearance sale through today, 9/17. A few “zombie” (read: grey leather) options in there if that’s your thing.

Note #2: Cue the “square toe” comments about these Hanovers. Look, they ain’t these. But they are a chisel thanks to the 333 last, and they don’t look as angular in person. Blame the limitations of 2D. 

Note #3: While taking this picture, the shoe slipped and landed toe first on the pavement, giving it a solid ding. I tried to clean off the toe with a licked thumb + pressure, but I ended up taking the burnishing clear off (I had been drinking ice water with some lemons + limes in it, maybe it was the acid?). That’s why in this pic, the left toe is noticeably lighter than the right. A little black shoe polish during the Alabama / Texas A&M game got it back to a match.

Comments

  3. I think i wouldn’t rule out a wholecut based on this example, but combined with the chisel toe and the only 3 eyelets, this particular shoe is a no for me.

  5. I have plenty of other shoes that I have on my list before a pair of whole-cuts. However, these make me think they will move up a few spots on the list.

  6. Of all the “Woud you wear it” posts, I would buy this one in a heart beat. It’s not the most “normal” look, but if you are going to do something bold – keep it clean and modest. This shoe does that and actually is a good looking shoe.

  7. I bought a pair of whole cuts from Ebay but sold them after wearing them for a day. They just look a bit odd since they’re so plain, especially after they develop some wrinkles/creases.

  8. yes, but that burnishing coming off with a little spit polish is more concerning than the look of the shoes.

  9. Not for me, but wouldn’t judge someone else for wearing it. Though I also probably wouldn’t compliment someone for wearing them. It’s just like wearing indifference on your feet.

  11. This is the sartorial equivalent of the comic book hero The Question.
    Something’s missing and I can’t quite put my finger on it.

  12. I like the black whole cut, since it errs more on the really formal look. Not a fan of the brown, especially with jeans on…just dont think it would look right.

  15. Very similar to the Letson Medallion. No cool toe perforations, but does look sleek. With a code or sale, definitely buy the bourbon shade.

  18. I think they’re beautiful shoes … but just not for me. What happens after a few wears when the only thing you notice is a toe crease? I’m not sure any leather is pliable enough to avoid that.

  20. If I wore suits for work, probably, as I love clean aesthetics. But I wear jeans/chinos and polos/oxfords…wear a suit for weddings only, so couldn’t justify.

  21. I’m a fan of wholecuts, although don’t own any, but the eyelets and lacing on these are a turn off for me. It looks too… Frankenstein-ish (?) for such an otherwise elegant shoe style.

  22. It pains me to say it, but I just don’t like these in brown. I’m sure some guys could pull this off under the right circumstances, but I don’t think I’m one of them. I also think time won’t be kind to these, no matter how well you take care of them.

  23. I think you’re right: With the lack of details to distract, the first creases in the leather are going to make this shoe borderline unwearable. And those creases *will* happen eventually, no matter how quickly you jam shoe trees into them upon taking them off and no matter how often you slather them with shoe cream.

  24. I hear you. I tried to replicate on the other shoe later on that day (so, y’know, they’d match) but the same spit+thumb wasn’t doing it that time. I do wonder if it was because I had been pounding water with lemons and limes in it that morning and my saliva was acidic? I don’t know. Odd.

  26. I hear you. The 3 eyelets was a bit bizarre to see, but now that I’ve had them and worn them a few times, I gotta say I really like them a lot. New favorites in fact. But yeah, there’s a lot going on there that’s out of the norm.

  27. The Kenilworth is a 3-eyelet offering (albeit a blucher – still very plain though), and most fellas love those. They don’t fit me so great, so I don’t own them, but part of the reason for that bad fit is that fewer number of eyelets. If they had 5 or 6, they’d tighten-up better on my flat-feet, fixing the ankle-bowing effect that some other folks have with them too.

    Do you have any issue with that kinda of bowing or gap around the ankle with these Hanovers, Joe?

  28. What, bruschetta… no emasculating graphic to go along with the comment this time? Or do you save those only for me? LOL – See??? The boss likes ’em. So there! Naner-naner-naner!

  29. Interesting… I mean perhaps they’d look better with pants that have a bit of break to them. As someone mentioned I could see black ones being great with a tux. They just seem too sleek to me. I really don’t like a chisel toe though. Probably wouldn’t be able to get past that. So I’m admittedly biased.

  30. My closest option to a whole-cut is the Vernon. Tiny cap-toe and border perforations, along with a little additional NON-whole-cut (almost kidney-shaped?/bone-shaped?/figure-eight-shaped?) piece for the laces/eyelets area keep it from the true whole-cut category (similar to that Magnanni or your Fairfax in that way.. sorta).

    My Vernons are black, however, and I typically wear them as a more formal shoe. They’re kinda my Park Ave stand-ins, as it were.

    I actually kinda like these Hanovers, in brown/bourbon, but I think that last is the one that fits me the weirdest. Is the Parkway on that one too? Seems like that elongated Euro toebox with the chisel is very familiar. Those ran very long on me, and even when sized down the toe box was just too elongated for my liking.

    Still, I *do* think these “look good” here in your post, Joe. Just not sure how they’d look *on*.

  31. I own a pair of AE whole-cuts (discontinued fairfax), and the creasing actually happens much faster than it does with other AE dress shoes. I don’t mind creasing generally, but the amount of noticeable creasing and how quickly it set in bothers me, and I would not buy another pair of whole-cuts as a result.

  32. Can I also give you a little judgment for the e you’re adding to the word? I think that’s fair, right? ;p

    Yes, I did just finish grading a stack of papers while wearing my wholecut AE Fairfax oxfords (which add a few lines of broguing and a few more eyelets – I love them).

  35. I found the fairfax hideous, but I would definitely wear these. The chisel isn’t very pronounced, but I would prefer four-eyes on this one.

  36. I just hate the wholecut look. To mee it looks like you tied some leather sacks around your feet.

  38. I’d give it a go. I despise the chisel toe as much as the next guy, but these don’t look so “chiseled.” They look so…formal. They should be in black. I’d like to see what I could pair it with to make it look good. So in conclusion, would I wear it? Yes. Would I buy it? No.

  44. That’s good to know. It would be really hard for me to justify spending so much money on a pair of shoes that would start to look beat up before too long.

  47. Josh, full disclosure: I live in the UK, but I was raised in the US. My browser autocorrects my spelling to the UK Apple dictionary. You might also see an s where you’d expect a z, and a u after an o in my posts. Forgive me. 😉

  48. I really like wholecuts, and the bourbon is fantastic, but the welt is so much wider than the shoe itself. To my eye, it overpowers the sleek line one expects from wholecuts, and turns it into a more casual shoe. I could see wearing it during a semi-elegant, drunken spree, with citrus-absent drinks. 😉

  49. I’d definitely wear them. I love the sleek minimalism of wholecuts. I can see them looking really sharp with a nice navy suit, or a black pair worn with a tuxedo. I believe Daniel Craig wore a pair of Crockett & Jones wholecut shoes with his tux in Skyfall.

  51. Hey, that’s coherent. I just live in West Virginia and use ‘your’ pronunciation of leisure and schedule to be intentionally unsettling. It’s ridiculous how different sides of the Atlantic have different rules or norms for the same [darn] language. Cool to know, though.

  54. I traveled down the the local Allen Edmonds store and checked this out. My two take aways were, “these are beautiful” and “whoa, the balls on the guy that wears these”.

    This is a strong fashion statement that will probably pay off for any man willing to take the risk. Then again, my daily beaters are wholecut Cheasea boots from Allen Edmonds, so I might be biased?

  57. I bought these, love them. I added lace holes in the two gap, so there are now 5, they did look a bit strange with only 3, and spaced so far apart. Surprisingly, they have really not creased at all and I’ve probably worn them 30 times. I do keep them on a tight shoe tree.