Tasselled With Hollywood

Thanksgiving, which always falls on the fourth Thursday of November, in fact took place on the 26th in 1942. And it so happened that on that federal holiday in the United States Warner Bros. released “Casablanca” in New York. Today’s moviegoers with a penchant for revered historical pictures would be dumfounded to learn that Casablanca, directed by the prolific Budapest-born filmmaker Michael Curtiz, was at the time considered anything but a shoo-in for the movie industry’s most coveted award. However, on March 2nd, 1944, when Hollywood’s glitterati descended on the 16^th Oscar ceremony, held for the first time at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the title voted ‘the’ Outstanding Motion Picture was, in fact, that romantic World War II drama.

Starring bold-faced names of the Golden Age of Hollywood, such as Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, Casablanca’s showcase of swashbuckling style undoubtedly contributed to it being deemed by a sect of movie aficionados as the greatest picture of all time.  There’s Rick Blaine’s (Humphrey Bogart) ivory wool double-breasted dinner jacket with a 4-on-1 button front and shawl collar, black wool formal trousers and black patent leather cap-toe oxford shoes, which is only a selection of the iconic outfit in the “La Marseillaise” scene. Then there’s the “Here’s Looking At You, Kid” scene, and Bogart is donning a dark grey wide-brimmed fedora made by Borsalino and, from the pantheon of famed trench coats, the Aquascutum khaki cotton gabardine twill waterproof coat with long point-collar lapels, 6×3 button double-breasted, slanted hip pockets, buttoned epaulettes and a belted waist – an outfit that never fades from memory.

However, neither did Bogart win Best Actor at those 16th Academy Awards, nor did his epochal costumes transcend into the encyclopaedic parameters of clothing history, unlike the lesser-known, but no less suave, Budapest-born actor Paul Lukas, with his performance in Watch on the Rhine (1943). Not only did Lukas win best actor, but it is thought that at this juncture of life he bought a pair of oxfords in Europe that had little tassels at the ends of the laces.

Robert Clark, vice president and spokesman for the Alden Shoe Co., tells the following tale on the origins of the tassel loafer, which is both more plausible and romanticises its roots more than any other. “Lukas took his shoes to New York shoemakers Farkas & Kovacs, and asked them to make something similar, perhaps with the laces woven through the topline of the shoe. Lukas was pleased with the design Farkas came up with, but didn’t like the fit. He then took one shoe to the New York firm of Lefcourt and the other to Morris Bootmakers in Beverly Hills, asking them each to develop a better version.”

Founded in 1884 by Charles H. Alden in Middleborough, Massachusetts, Alden Shoe Co. is the foremost USA shoemaker – a brand that has arguably influenced shoes and popular culture more than any other cordwainers. In 1948, Lefcourt and Morris Bootmakers presented their designs to Alden, which was then run by Arthur Tarlow Sr., a descendant of Charles, who tampered and concocted a slip-on that would incorporate topside lacing and tassels. It took two years of further modifications, but in part showing deference to Lefcourt and Morris Bootmakers, they were chosen as the first two retail stores that would sell this revolutionary shoe – an introduction that transcended tastes in different geographies and professions so much so that by 1952 they were offering the shoe in up to 20 varieties of colour and leather.

The escalation of the tassel loafer was best signified in 1957, when Brooks Brothers, the preeminent providers of the Ivy League aesthetic, were given a patent on the Alden-made tassel loafer. As Clark explains, “Alden produced a tassel loafer with distinctive decorative foxing at the back part of the shoe,” which remained exclusive to Brooks Brothers until it was dissolved in 2019 in favour of an Italian-made version.

Infiltrated into politics and law, in history the tassel loafer has found itself as the subject of critical insinuations. However, before George W. Bush famously wanted to hurl a wounding barb during a presidential campaign, he complained that Bill Clinton was supported by “every lawyer that ever wore a tasselled loafer.” One has to accept that this typecast was after Ronald Reagan took office in 1981; the pinstriped-suited bankers of Wall Street would swap their brogues for the tassel loafer.

Nowadays, the tassel loafer is a special case in terms of trying to make assertions of both its credentials of being accepted in more formal and informal affairs. If there’s anyone who sincerely represents this burgeoning duality, it would be Alexander Kraft – and the model is at the forefront of his sartorial enactment with his unique yet classic interpretations of timeless garments.

As is custom with AK MC, they have sourced a well-established family-run cobbler in Portugal where both the burgundy and caramel calf leather versions are hand burnished to give them a delectable and distinctive patina shine. It doesn’t matter if you’re attending a Cabinet meeting in 10 Downing Street or you’re shopping in the Principality and retiring to the chic Belle Époque palace, which is the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, for a refreshing Negroni; an ill-made and flimsy tassel made from average leather always seems to project inadequacy more than other loafer styles.

The loafer is crafted from superior leather and features Goodyear®-welted soles. Like other AK MC designs, the tassel loafer comprises distinctive chic details such as its elongated shape, thus training one’s eyes to observe an AK MC outfit, which could include the perfect jeans, Gurkha trousers, flannel chalk stripe pants, or a Riviera model, and either with or without socks in anticipation of temperatures; they are the ultimate year-round versatile loafer.