Patina is a process. Too sophisticated at first glance for many men, it often seems very distant, sometimes intimidating, artificial, or pretentious.

A manifesto of discretion

We must be able to start from scratch, without prejudice, and familiarize ourselves with an idea that is not obvious: the shoe as a blank canvas. An infinity of possibilities: colors, contrasts, effects. A challenge.

Regarding one of their peaty single malts, the Scots invite perseverance: “make the effort, broach acquaintance and you’ll have a genuine friend for life.” One would advise the same perseverance to arrive at a patina.

Because it undeniably requires this effort of conversion: just as a palate must get used to finding pleasure in bitterness or in the disconcerting strength of a new flavor.

In time, the patina that initially presented itself as this vast (and foggy) landscape one approached with caution along the twists and turns of one's "sartorial" path will gradually clear, and its geography will become more familiar. One identifies favorite corners and plants one's habits there. Rarely does one only ever have a single patina in their lifetime.

There are undoubtedly as many patinas as there are ways of wearing a patinated shoe. As many patinas, therefore, as there are masculine wardrobes and styles. The best and the worst stand side by side. Let us not go too fast and avoid overdoing it right away. Elegance requires measure first and foremost. In terms of patina, it is even a matter of custom-made.

Ultimately, mastering the color and appearance of one's shoes is a reward that leads directly into higher degrees of pleasure and refinement that one quickly grows to enjoy. A luxury? Perhaps. In the sense that one creates a unique object, aligned with desires born of one's own imagination.

It’s beautiful, isn’t it? To think that every patina has only one’s imagination as its limit. Ah, the imagination, that powerful engine, that spirited animal which, when let loose in the arena (so full of obstacles) of clothing & footwear, requires skill, deft and controlled handling to draw out the maximum power (of style, in short!), in complete safety. Why wish to set off at a gallop or full throttle towards hazardous patina choices? How does one avoid making a mistake?

Avoiding any misstep from the start…

For us, a successful patina most often comes (to start with, at any rate) from black toward light. The black lets the color escape, which, while keeping a cloak of mystery in the depths, reveals itself through contrasts, swirls, or transparencies and in the reflections of the polished leather. Color is not given but conquered: the eye must have the feeling of a shoe different from other shoes, but this sentiment should remain inexplicable, as if unresolved. Persistent glances will have to search for the color to find it. Conversely, a patina that is too flashy, gaudy, or bright quickly turns into a spectacle…

A successful patina, even in light tones, does not attract attention: it must remain furtive, passing, already far away, barely recognized and yet distinguished, mischievous but seriously so… and above all, sober, above all!

The eye should slide over a patinated shoe without lingering, because what should be of interest is you, your person. Not your shoes.

But developing a patina is mastering much more than color.

Because once the color(s) have been chosen, you will need to determine how you want them to unfold and come alive on the shoe.

There are three 'families' of finishes that we detail below. May your imagination be tickled!

– the solid effect: the shoe is colored in a full shade; there is no particular play with the color. Nevertheless, the solid effect achieved by hand presents infinite nuances visible only up close, but which give the shoe incomparable depth and the leather an incomparable vibration. Take a black patina, quite simple, without effects: its density and vibration will be different from a traditional leather colored in a bath at the time of tanning, because the pigment deposited by the brushstrokes on the shoe will have permeated it in a non-uniform way at first, then evening out, but at its own rhythm, with minute variations in the grain. The glazing (an emulsion of polish and water droplets) will perfect this slow journey of the color into the material!

– the brush effect: the stroke of the brush is left visible. The shoe is dynamic; the color thus traced seems in motion on the leather.

– the museum effect: swirls, clouds, sfumato… the color is free, the contours imprecise, the effects swirling, the contrasts, the happy accidents are left as they are, just as a painter does their canvas. One can comfortably play with several colors, create infinite depth, give the sensation of the patina of time, of natural wear!

Our shoes are patinated in our boutique workshops. With brushes, sponges, and cloths, with drying times and a technical touch to obtain beautiful "homemade" work, in the heart of Paris. A patina can count up to 5 or even 7 layers of color, sometimes with a different effect and color per layer. The resulting complexity must always appear fluid, rich, yet coherent. Built.

Patina: the quest for the perfect harmony.

The patina of a shoe is the quest for a constantly renewed absolute, that of the perfect harmony: with one's suit, socks, the weather, one's mood, current trends, a stripe on one's tie, one's hair, that very particular tone of one's polka-dot pocket square, or the knotty wooden handle of one's favorite umbrella. One should be able to tell a story for each of their patinas and thus enrich it with a personal narrative that makes sense. "Having a good reason," being in the intention rather than the demonstration. This is the key to choosing a patina that suits you.

A quest, then, by no means out of vanity, not to impress the crowd: quite the opposite. A thoughtful or spontaneous (sprezzatura-esque!) quest, humble, an internal dialogue constructed for one’s most secret pleasure, for the delicate and personal game of correspondence. Yes, for the pleasure of creating secret links, barely visible between objects, with materials, or regarding an accessory.

Linking to the spiritual world (elegance is also of this sort of link, isn’t it?) and the patina becomes synesthesia. One thinks of "Correspondences," that sensational poem by Baudelaire.

One could compose a patina as others make a perfume…

“

(…)

There are perfumes as fresh as children’s flesh,

Sweet as oboes, green as meadows,

– And others, corrupt, rich and triumphant,

Having the expansiveness of infinite things,

Like amber, musk, benzoin and incense,

Which sing of the transports of the spirit and the senses.”

Correspondances, Baudelaire