Crownhill Shoes: Premium Grade Double-Monks

The double monk shoe. Well, it still remains a controversial model, still now when even the big retailers finally give in and present it as a new fashionable model. Well, let me tell you: ….it isn’t.

To make a short story short: Nobody knows when the monk shoe was invented, but it was established on a wider front in Europe during the High Middle Ages (ca. 1000-1350 BC) when the monks, who earlier mostly had worn sandals, started using the model a lot. So that’s where the name comes from. Mostly used as a work shoe, since it protected a lot more and was more comfortable to work in than the sandals of that time. The buckle or buckles (even at that time the double buckle version existed already!) made it look quite a lot like the more traditionally worn sandals. Now, let’s make a big leap from this time into the future…into time. Single monks have always remained, yet the 2-buckle version has always been continued by John Lobb and Edward Green. I myself drove to Paris at age 18, to get my first pair. And that’s 30 years ago…. Affordable decent versions were hard to find afterwards, so whenever they crossed my path, I just had to have them.Anyway, my latest pair comes from Crownhill Shoes. And that’s not an English brand. It’s Spanish. And handmade. And has a Rendenbach sole. And has a cool name: “The McQueen”: (All their 'Premium Grade' shoes have a famous person's name attached to it)"This model is a humble tribute to the “King of Cool”. This is a shoe with race and overwhelming personality as the man who gives name. The McQueen fits perfectly when you combine them with narrow leg pants just whose low friction shoe. This way you get to emphasize the elegant shoe upper and details of the double buckle, the distinctive touch of this model."