Derrick Miller, creative director of Barker Black, explains how to get the most mileage of out of your shoes.
Shelve shoes for at least 24 hours after wearing. "Shoes need to dry out, but never put your shoes anywhere near a radiator," warns Miller. "It will dry out the leather and basically melt the shoe from the inside out."
Shoe trees will extend the life of your shoes, especially if you're sporting shoes sockless. But they needn't be fancy. "For me, it is not the material that makes a good shoe tree but the shape. It needs to retain the shoe's original shape so it should come as close as possible to the shape of the shoe."
Buff regularly. Miller's ritual for shining his shoes? Sunday in front of the TV. "I lay a coat of polish on each shoe letting it sit until I am done with all of them, before buffing them all off with a brush. Shoes that are in really tough shape get an extra coat of polish and are left overnight and buffed off in the morning."
Anglophiles are apparently born, not made. In high school, Derrick wore his father's hand-me-down Savile Row suits.
