Hermès for Men — Shoes, Belts & Ready-to-Wear · London

Hermès was a men’s house before it was anything else. The first customers were riders, and for most of the twentieth century the men’s side of the business — shoes, belts, ties, the leather jacket, the cashmere — was where the house’s idea of quiet luxury was worked out. The men’s ready-to-wear studio has been run with a continuity almost no other Paris house can claim, and it shows in the product: colours that repeat season to season, a cut that changes by millimetres rather than by fashion, and materials chosen because they age well. This page gathers the men’s pieces we hold that are not bags. If you are looking for a HAC, a Birkin 40 or a Kelly Dépêches, they live on Bags for Men.

Shoes first, because that is where most men start with the house. The Izmir is the men’s answer to the Oran: the same H cut through the strap, but on a wider footbed with a thicker strap in box calf or Epsom, so it reads as a proper sandal rather than a slide. The Chypre is the one the house made unisex — two wide straps closed with Velcro, a moulded rubber sole, a clear nod to the trekking sandal, and the piece that sells out first each spring in men’s sizes. The Bouncing is the trainer most of our clients ask for: a suede and technical-canvas runner with the H worked into the side panel, light enough for a summer city. The Day is the plainer low-top in calfskin. Loafers come with and without the H buckle, in box calf for town and suede for everything else.

Sizing is the practical question, and it is worth getting right before anything is ordered. Hermès men’s shoes are made in Italy and cut in European sizes, 39 to 46, with half sizes on the sandals and trainers. Each last fits differently — a flat sandal, a padded trainer and a narrow Italian loafer do not take the same size — so rather than guess, tell us the size you take in a brand you already wear — a Common Projects, a Loro Piana, a pair of Church’s — and we will confirm what to order. A pair that arrives in the right size is the whole point of buying from a specialist rather than from a marketplace listing.

The belt is the second thing a man buys from Hermès, and often the first thing he is given. The H belt is a system rather than a single object: a buckle and a reversible strap, bought together or separately, with the strap in Togo on one side and Epsom or box calf on the other so that one belt covers black and brown. The 32 mm width is the everyday choice and the one that works with a suit; the 38 mm is for denim and heavier cloth. Buckles come in palladium, gold, brushed, guilloché and, on rarer straps, in the tone-on-tone finishes that Hermès collectors watch for. Straps are sized by length in centimetres with five holes, and we confirm the length from your trouser size before we source or sell one. The Kelly belt, with its turn-lock, is the women’s design; for a man the H is the one.

Ready-to-wear is the part of the men’s universe that never reaches the secondary market in any quantity, because the pieces are made in small runs and worn out rather than resold. Cashmere crewnecks and cardigans, the poplin and linen shirts, the lambskin and deerskin blousons, the cotton twill trousers cut a little fuller than the Italian houses — when one of these comes to us in a men’s size, it appears here, graded and photographed like everything else. More often the answer is sourcing: tell us the piece, the size and the colour and we will find it new. The same applies to the smaller leather goods a man actually uses — the Citizen Twill card holder, the MC² wallet, the Bastia coin purse — and to the ties and pocket squares.

Every piece on this page is graded to the standard we use for a Birkin. Shoes are checked on the sole, the heel, the insole print and the box; belts on the strap stamping, the buckle marking and the wear at the holes; ready-to-wear on the labels, the composition tag and the seams. We say plainly whether a piece is new with its full set, unworn, or pre-owned, and if it is pre-owned we describe the wear rather than photograph around it. A man buying a pair of Izmir sandals deserves the same honesty as a woman buying a Kelly, and gets it.

What the boutique has this season, we source new. The lines we fetch most often for men are the trainers, the loafers, the H belt, the Izmir and the Chypre, and each has its own sourcing page with today’s price against the UK boutique. The mechanism is simple: you send us the model, size and colour on WhatsApp, we confirm availability and price, and the piece arrives with its full set and boutique receipt, usually within seven to ten days. It is the way most of our male clients now buy their shoes and belts — without the queue, without the store visit, and priced below the boutique.

Everything here can be seen and tried at our showroom in Chelsea Harbour, seven days a week by appointment, which for shoes and belts is worth the visit: ten minutes on foot settles a size in a way no chart can. Pieces are also delivered next-day anywhere in the UK, insured, once payment has cleared to BY JULL LTD. Men’s pieces make good gifts, and the right size makes them better ones — if you are buying for someone else, tell us and we will help you get it right the first time.