And of course there are still the venerable shoe makers of Northampshire which in my opinion remain the best industrial ready-to-wear shoemaking in the world (with a few exceptions, namely Carmina and J.M. Weston) : Edward Green, Crockett & Jones, Cheaney, Church's, Grenson etc. I'm myself a regular Crockett & Jones customer as they make the only size + width combination I've found in ready-to-wear that matches my feet really well.
Of course it's a rather militant way of looking at clothing and it's all pretty expensive stuff but :
- Frankly it's affordable if you've got an engineer's comp.
- It keeps its value well on the second-hand market.