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I would like to open a new discussion for those who have already tested Carpe Diem, Augusta, Guidi. Who is the best? What do you find for and against? To me all seems to be quite similar...but never try one on my feet.
I think that Batman would get his ass kicked by Superman because without his toys, Batman is just Bruce Wayne. But granted, he does have cool toys. But Wolverine on the other hand has an adamantium exo-skeleton and DNA that enables him to regenerate from serious injuries.
It's a tough call... Let me get back to you on that one...
I kind of agree with uparmoured there - it's not a very interesting discussion considering that Guidi is a leather supplier for CDiem and most probably Augusta. So, it becomes the question of aesthetics more or less. There CDiem is king for me - not all, but some models.
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde
I agree. The only reason I might put Guidi ahead of the pack is because the quality is on par with the other shoes/boots but yet the pricing is considerably lower.
"because the young are whores. dealers come to carol to get the rock"
Thanks Casius. That was the answer I was looking for. Same quality and lower pricing. Despite the fact that aesthetic is to be consider at the first as well. Faust, Guidi is manufacturing shoes/boots as well. They may be also the leather supplier and footwear manufacturer for CDiem, MA+ and others.
Between the 3 it really does come down to aesthetics.
Do you like the like the more square toebox of Augusta paired with the gray lacing and that kind of leather dye? They ended up being underwhelming when I saw them at L'Eclaireur in person even though the first boot shipment at Atelier's photos made one pair (practically tiger striped) look stunning.
Carpe's are of course without a doubt the perfect staple boot. The toebox is wider and rounder than most boots and has the uplifted toe (Augusta carries this over a bit as well). Very clean and simple treatments (aside from a few exceptions) make for a classic shoe/boot that won't take a lot of though to pair.
Guidis are nice, also the most inexpensive of the lot if you're buying at full retail. From the angled ones that have the rear zip along with the few other pairs i've seen in stores, I think they don't have as much creative thought put into them as Augusta or CDiem. They're nice, comfortable and simplistic which can compliment a lot of outfits well.
Maybe that helps! I believe Augusta is the most expensive of all three overall (the CDiem python boots being the exception) as well.
Between the 3 it really does come down to aesthetics.
I think they don't
have as much creative thought put into them as Augusta or CDiem.
[/quote]
I whole heartedly agree. Though IMO, comfort comes into play here as well and Guidi's aren't as comfortable. I really like the contoured insole of CDiems and maybe I'm off here but I find Guidi's insoles flatter in comparison. I can walk all day in either, but prefer CD.
[quote user="RARA"]Thanks Casius. That was the answer I was looking for. Same quality and lower pricing. Despite the fact that aesthetic is to be consider at the first as well. Faust, Guidi is manufacturing shoes/boots as well. They may be also the leather supplier and footwear manufacturer for CDiem, MA+ and others.[/quote]
I know all about Guidi [75] What I meant to say is that before the recent rebranding in the vein of CDiem, they were and still are primarily a leather tannery - their recent offering are simply a result of rebranding, hence I look at them as kind of another Arte Povera clone. They've made footwear before (I own a pair of exquisite shoes before the rebranding - when they were called Guidi & Rosselini), but their primary business is still leather.
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde
Some of the old models in brown looked very good indeed. By the way I'm not even sure they were still making the boots for Carpe (they did provide leathers), anyone can identify the makers by year period?
AFAIK Poells are made in-house but the (pre-treatment)leathers are supposedly still Guidi, so I'd also like to confirm that. I know Poell did somedesigns for Guidi and helped them re-brand in that sense but don't know the depth of his implication either....
This was an interesting, timely question, considering the implosion/explosion of the now-defunct Carpe Diem, the success of its offspring, and the time-flagrant but beautifully-judged, quietly-intense response from Maurizio Altieri.
For this writer, the ultimate refinement in footwear lay with Carpe Diem, but which carries through in amplified spades to Altieri's Avantindietro collection, sighted again in Paris in October. It is hard to imagine a more completely modern footwear statement - reduced as it is to a minimal leather form (soles carved away to next-to-nothing, the absence of seams/stitching, ultra-thin laces if any; the designs fluid, aerodynamic, anatomical.) Are these leather slippers, boots, shoes, runners, some kind of epiphany, some kind of footwear for the future? They are perhaps all of these, and the result of a designer's smouldering obsession with the reduction of footwear to a single leather form that is free of 'ridiculous' detail/production constraints. Well worth the wait.
Simone Cecchetto of Augusta, on the other hand, is obsessed by skin, and the life that the skin of your shoes might have beyond their point of sale. Augustas, a generally more rugged shoe, should not be treated in a precious, retentive way - they are to be worn, scarred, bashed - the joy of them is to be had with the 'seasons of their skin', the inequalities, the emergence, like the Shroud of Turin, on their different, weathered surfaces. Not to be overlooked is their facility for absolute comfort, once the 'artisinal idiosyncracies' and treatments have been broken down - the writer has walked for miles over Parisian cobbled streets in these boots and shoes, and swears by them. Simone, it should be noted, is also pushing his work with skins, with new, exotic developments in shark and stingray.
Guidi appear to generate their footwear from some intrinsic, Italian fundamentalism for leather and hide - your reaction, therefore, is likely to come from the gut and not necessarily the brain. As witnessed in Paris in October, the new, raw, range of bags and open-toed boots and shoes (a la sandles with substance) is strong and earthy, without excessive human intervention, and with an unforced sense of 'arte povera', created without heed to the market or any dictate of wank. For those wanting a more earthly attachment to modern/historic Italian soil, with the ability to create your own look, and without being dominated by overt design, Guidi appears to be the Jesus of Italian avante garde footwear - both a winner in price and tactile quality.
Carol Christian Poell: the dictator. Having broken in a pair of zip-up boots this last season the writer can attest to a relationship with the designer that is push-pull/fuck you, but which ultimately, perhaps surprisingly quickly, becomes devotional - as in 'I think I'm in love'. The first experience of a CCP shoe/boot can result in a head-scratching question: how does this shoe last relate to my foot? But successive wears and breaking in find the foot moulding the design and not the other way 'round, resulting in a comfort that is extra-ordinary, as natural as saliva in the mouth, and a visible ageing process of the skin which binds the wearer into a shared relationship. As with all things Poell, what is required of the purchaser/wearer, is the entering of a 'conversation' with the designer/artist, and the abandonment of the timidity which is, unfortunately, specifically male, and to be found consistently throughout these pages.
Beautiful descriptions, you could really be their publicist...
[quote user="desultory"]Carol Christian Poell: the dictator. Having broken in a pair of zip-up boots this last season the writer can attest to a relationship with the designer that is push-pull/fuck you, but which ultimately, perhaps surprisingly quickly, becomes devotional - as in 'I think I'm in love'. The first experience of a CCP shoe/boot can result in a head-scratching question: how does this shoe last relate to my foot? But successive wears and breaking in find the foot moulding the design and not the other way 'round, resulting in a comfort that is extra-ordinary, as natural as saliva in the mouth, and a visible ageing process of the skin which binds the wearer into a shared relationship. As with all things Poell, what is required of the purchaser/wearer, is the entering of a 'conversation' with the designer/artist, and the abandonment of the timidity which is, unfortunately, specifically male, and to be found consistently throughout these pages.[/quote]
This is the most articulate and colourful that I have ever heard anyone describe the "It hurt like hell until it got broken in" Scenario...
shit. what else do you write about? i love the push pull/fuck you becoming devotional which is as you articulate in the last sentence the key to the CCP SZ pathos. i thought this was good too in the alignment of fashion and devotion:
Guidi appears to be the Jesus of Italian avante garde footwear - both a winner in price and tactile quality
One wonders where it will end, when everything has become gay.
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