For me, the idea of a driving loafer is to be comfortable and casual. It is a fun shoe, not a stuffy dress shoe that should be black and boring. Driving shoes, while can be uniform in a dark color, in my mind should be playful and different. It’s something that you wear in the Summer when the sky is beautiful and light, colors are vivid and life is relaxed. This is how I picture driving shoes. And this is how Bobbies, a French shoe company, makes them. There are no stuffiness about their shoes. They are about as playful and un-serious as one could get. And that’s what I love about them.
While I know that they will not be to everyone’s taste, particularly the bow tie one, it is not difficult to at least appreciate the fact that they are striving to be different and not simply make a driving loafer that looks like every other driving loafer on the market. For example, the highlighted denim one is very clever. Not only is it made with denim, my favorite casual material, but instead of adding the common rubber studs that you often see on driving loafers Bobbies one-upped it and put a espadrille sole on there. I found that to be quite clever and unique. And apparently a whole load of other people appreciate it too as Bobbies since the first time I wrote about them 5 years ago, have come a long way!