The loafer according to LUCA GROSSI: leather, suede and low heels
A loafer is a closed shoe worn without lacing: the foot slides under a band stitched across the instep. It is the shape most of this LUCA GROSSI page is built on — leather or suede uppers, round toes, and a heel that stays low on almost every model in stock. Anyone looking for a shoe to wear from morning to evening without tightening anything starts here.
About half the range in stock is suede, part of it treated to repel water. Suede is a leather finished on the flesh side, with a velvet surface, brushed rather than polished, and best protected before the first wear rather than after the first stain. It is the same material the product pages call camoscio. The rest of the page is smooth leather, which cleans with a damp cloth and revives with a neutral cream.
The sole is rubber: light, quiet and free of the break-in a leather bottom imposes. On part of the range it is stitched with a welt, the strip running between upper and sole that stiffens the edge of the shoe and allows the bottom to be redone instead of replacing the pair. Inside, a leather insole — which absorbs moisture and takes the print of the foot within weeks — alternates with a padded leather footbed, softer under the forefoot from day one.
Three details recur across this range and tell one model from another. The fringe stitched over the instep is the most classic loafer element and visually widens the top of the shoe. The buckle, single or double, cuts the upper with a horizontal line and optically shortens the foot. The metal horsebit, the ring shaped like a horse's snaffle, is the most recognisable of the three and the most formal. None of them changes the fit; all three change the register of the shoe.
The sandals are the open part of the collection: open toes throughout, a strap holding the heel, and a heel height that rises above the loafers into the medium and high range. They sit alongside every other pair in the store on the women's sandals page.
