RTW Bonafe vs Bestetti vs Meccariello shoes

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verrihappy

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Any members care to comment on their relative merits, though I am aware that Bonafe is considerbaly cheaper than the other two, while all claims to be hand welted?

How do they stack up to G&G btw?
 
Just out of curiosity, why do these three brands compare against one another? Is it quality? Price point? Etc.?
 
All hyped on SF, especially by the Swedish and American shills, for being the epitome of craftmanship due to their labourious hand welting. I like the Meccariellos best, from pictures only. They are supposed to be better than the machine welted shoes from Northampton, though I am yet to be convinced.
 
Of the three makers, I think that only Bonafe is generally available as ready-to-wear and their shoes cost about US$500 from Skoaktiebolaget.

Meccariello makes a small RTW range for the Japanese market, but I've never seen or heard of them elsewhere. His MTO shoes start at about US$700 and he has a higher, "Aurum" MTO line that starts about about US$1200.

Out of the three, I personally like the look of Meccariello the most, following by Bonafe and then Bestetti. The seamless, wholecut boot that chobochobo recently had made by Meccariello looked amazing and the execution was technically masterful.

To me, Bestetti shoes usually look a bit too exaggerated - toe too chiselled, antiquing a bit too pronounced and so on. The details are a bit over-done. Also, I've seen some examples of his MTO shoes that don't appear to fit terribly well. Quite frankly, given that those examples are "over the internet" MTO where people measure their own feet and send the info to Bestetti, that's not really surprising.
 
Journeyman said:
Of the three makers, I think that only Bonafe is generally available as ready-to-wear and their shoes cost about US$500 from Skoaktiebolaget.

Meccariello makes a small RTW range for the Japanese market, but I've never seen or heard of them elsewhere. His MTO shoes start at about US$700 and he has a higher, "Aurum" MTO line that starts about about US$1200.

Out of the three, I personally like the look of Meccariello the most, following by Bonafe and then Bestetti. The seamless, wholecut boot that chobochobo recently had made by Meccariello looked amazing and the execution was technically masterful.

To me, Bestetti shoes usually look a bit too exaggerated - toe too chiselled, antiquing a bit too pronounced and so on. The details are a bit over-done. Also, I've seen some examples of his MTO shoes that don't appear to fit terribly well. Quite frankly, given that those examples are "over the internet" MTO where people measure their own feet and send the info to Bestetti, that's not really surprising.
Click to expand...

Those boots must be quite spendy. Meccariello quoted me around €2000 for a seamless wholecut chelsea a while back.

Bonafe will do MTO with a 15% surcharge and a 3 month delivery. They will also do bespoke either at their shop as well as through D'Boiss in Tallinn Estonia (owned by an English chap). The Sales channel is pretty narrow with shops in Italy, Russia, Germany, a place in LA but most of these shops do not have a web presence for sales. Leffot is selling three models of their button boots.

Gianni told me you can send a pair of shoes to Bestetti for sizing. I find a lot of his stuff over the top but he does have more reserved lasts. I beleive he has an RTW line as well. He has trunk shows through Leffot now.
 
I have seen the seamless Meccariello boots on SF, and they look sublime. I found, from looking at the pictures fanboys posted on their Bonafe shoes, that they tend to crease a lot in the toe boxes. No idea but could it be the quality of the leather used?
 
verrihappy said:
I have seen the seamless Meccariello boots on SF, and they look sublime. I found, from looking at the pictures fanboys posted on their Bonafe shoes, that they tend to crease a lot in the toe boxes. No idea but could it be the quality of the leather used?
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I haven't seen all that many pictures of Enzo Bonafe shoes "in the wild", so to speak, but didn't notice overly much creasing.

However, I did notice some large creases on some pairs of over-the-internet MTO Bestetti shoes and I think that it's because of sizing/measurement issues - the shoes were possibly too large over the forepart of the wearer's feet.

Here are a couple of examples from the Bestetti thread on SF - it's the same feet in both pics:

6a3de0f2_IMG_1683.jpeg


9f48ed3c_IMG_2475.jpeg


It's the same person in both pics - it may even be the same pair of trousers.

I don't like the style of the second pair but (and this may just be because of the angle), I think that the second pair look a bit better than the first and, if I'm right, that could be because it's a second MTO attempt and measurements have been sorted out a bit more.

Then again, maybe I'm just being too picky.
 
Journeyman said:
However, I did notice some large creases on some pairs of over-the-internet MTO Bestetti shoes and I think that it's because of sizing/measurement issues - the shoes were possibly too large over the forepart of the wearer's feet.

Then again, maybe I'm just being too picky.
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+1, I dont think you are being picky, I think those are 1 size too large for the wearer.
 
Journeyman said:
I haven't seen all that many pictures of Enzo Bonafe shoes "in the wild", so to speak, but didn't notice overly much creasing.

However, I did notice some large creases on some pairs of over-the-internet MTO Bestetti shoes and I think that it's because of sizing/measurement issues - the shoes were possibly too large over the forepart of the wearer's feet.

Here are a couple of examples from the Bestetti thread on SF - it's the same feet in both pics:

6a3de0f2_IMG_1683.jpeg


9f48ed3c_IMG_2475.jpeg


It's the same person in both pics - it may even be the same pair of trousers.

I don't like the style of the second pair but (and this may just be because of the angle), I think that the second pair look a bit better than the first and, if I'm right, that could be because it's a second MTO attempt and measurements have been sorted out a bit more.

Then again, maybe I'm just being too picky.
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plus riccardo tends to use all of the hide, also the lesser parts. it may be a combination of sub-optimal leather and size. some pictures of his recent rtw work on insta or tumblr look pretty bad. will see if I can find it again.

edit

here you go look at the lacing

image.webp


btw all of the rtw lasts that are sold by dutch shoe store sir max are ugly
 
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Who in RTW doesn't use all the hides when manufacturing a shoe? Internet rumour's say that John Lobb is one shoe per hide and Edward Green a max of 3 shoes per hide.

As far as I know the rest of RTW manufacturers up to use the whole hide when manufacture the hide they can cut off belly or neck but that's all.
 
robertito said:
Who in RTW doesn't use all the hides when manufacturing a shoe? Internet rumour's say that John Lobb is one shoe per hide and Edward Green a max of 3 shoes per hide.

As far as I know the rest of RTW manufacturers up to use the whole hide when manufacture the hide they can cut off belly or neck but that's all.
Click to expand...

pictures attached by Journeyman Journeyman are mto not rtw
 
ConchitaWurst said:
plus riccardo tends to use all of the hide, also the lesser parts. it may be a combination of sub-optimal leather and size. some pictures of his recent rtw work on insta or tumblr look pretty bad. will see if I can find it again.

edit

here you go look at the lacing

View attachment 5228

btw all of the rtw lasts that are sold by dutch shoe store sir max are ugly
Click to expand...

Very interesting post.


robertito said:
Who in RTW doesn't use all the hides when manufacturing a shoe? Internet rumour's say that John Lobb is one shoe per hide and Edward Green a max of 3 shoes per hide.

As far as I know the rest of RTW manufacturers up to use the whole hide when manufacture the hide they can cut off belly or neck but that's all.
Click to expand...

I would be guessing that Anthony Cleverley would also do one cut per hide. Why? Because the leather is better than Lobb prestige who are also said to use one cut per hide. E.G and Lobb Classic uses less quality leather than Lobb Prestige and A.C, so them using more cuts per hide would make sense.
 
Bonafe has glaring lasting and leather problems. Bestetti is over hyped and its quality not there yet.

AM looks pretty good.

It doesn't matter which part or how much of a hide a manufacturer used, but if the end result shoes have bad leather, it's bad. For example, Meermin
 
The Shooman said:
Very interesting post.




I would be guessing that Anthony Cleverley would also do one cut per hide. Why? Because the leather is better than Lobb prestige who are also said to use one cut per hide. E.G and Lobb Classic uses less quality leather than Lobb Prestige and A.C, so them using more cuts per hide would make sense.
Click to expand...

I got hold of a full calf hide of Museum calf from Ilcea. The size is 20 sqft(around 1.85m2) I have spoken to Vass that told me that they can only get 2 or maximum 3 shoes out of the hide (that is without seeing the hide) I don't know how what other shoemakers could do as I still have to decide what to do with the hide. But upon inspection i think that the cutting yield is very good. It has only a few neck wrinkles, and very few stretch (belly) mark. Being calf the rest of the hide is in very good condition (no veins, bytes, etc....) you can feel the spine. I assume that any other shoe maker could get a few pairs.
If Cleverley uses only 1 hide per hide the 'wastage' is really a lot.
 
rule of thumb is five sqft/pair. next stop is to convince a reputable maker to use the "damaged" parts because you like the characteristics. in conclusion: the estimation of vass is about right, if they haven't seen the piece. no rocket science.

robertito said:
I got hold of a full calf hide of Museum calf from Ilcea. The size is 20 sqft(around 1.85m2) I have spoken to Vass that told me that they can only get 2 or maximum 3 shoes out of the hide (that is without seeing the hide) I don't know how what other shoemakers could do as I still have to decide what to do with the hide. But upon inspection i think that the cutting yield is very good. It has only a few neck wrinkles, and very few stretch (belly) mark. Being calf the rest of the hide is in very good condition (no veins, bytes, etc....) you can feel the spine. I assume that any other shoe maker could get a few pairs.
If Cleverley uses only 1 hide per hide the 'wastage' is really a lot.
Click to expand...
 
robertito said:
I got hold of a full calf hide of Museum calf from Ilcea. The size is 20 sqft(around 1.85m2) I have spoken to Vass that told me that they can only get 2 or maximum 3 shoes out of the hide (that is without seeing the hide) I don't know how what other shoemakers could do as I still have to decide what to do with the hide. But upon inspection i think that the cutting yield is very good. It has only a few neck wrinkles, and very few stretch (belly) mark. Being calf the rest of the hide is in very good condition (no veins, bytes, etc....) you can feel the spine. I assume that any other shoe maker could get a few pairs.
Click to expand...

Interesting.


robertito said:
If Cleverley uses only 1 hide per hide the 'wastage' is really a lot.
Click to expand...

They would just sell the rest of the leather and another shoe company would buy it, imo.
 
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