British atelier Connolly has teamed up with Spanish shoe designer Álvaro González to create an instant classic.
Connolly represents the zenith of quality in two very different industries. In business for nearly 150 years, the British brand rose to prominence as the foremost supplier of fine leather to the automotive industry (it was the go-to for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for 100 years), and to this day remains the preference for marques including Ferrari and Jaguar. But in recent decades, Connolly has quietly established itself as one of Britain’s leading luxury clothing brands.
The two sides of the business have rarely overlapped, aside from a few understated design nods to its automotive heritage on leather goods. Its new driving loafer, however, says it out loud.
“We wanted the little details that no one had ever done,” says Álvaro González, an old friend of Connolly owner Isabel Ettedgui and a notable shoe designer, with credits at Loro Piana, Valentino, and Jimmy Choo. Discussions between the pair, González remembers, began two years ago at his archive in Florence, where he presented an edit of random (but pertinent) shoes to Ettedgui to spark inspiration. “Indian moccasins, trainers, Japanese shoes…” he says. “There were something like 20 very different pieces to start the conversation.”
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The traditional driving-loafer category is largely owned by one design in particular: Tod’s Gommino. The word means ‘pebble’ in Italian and refers to the little dots of rubber that serve as the slip-on’s sole. It’s been the cornerstone of the Tod’s business for half a century. But it wasn’t the first. That was by another Italian brand, Car Shoe — later purchased by Prada — and very neatly, Ettedgui stocked it at Connolly when she first opened the store three decades ago. She has, she says, had “a bee in my bonnet ever since to create a driving shoe that is really actually comfy to wear when driving.”
So González wanted to rework the design, preferring a solid but ultra-thin sole for wear both inside and out of the vehicle, like those you might find on professional racing footwear. “We use a glove construction that is stitched and turned,” he says. “The rubber sole is only stitched on the toe and on the heel, so that gives you that flexibility.”
The toe of the Connolly iteration is almond-shaped, which González says is more ergonomic than the usual rounded driving loafer. “When we started looking at the toe, I was wearing Gucci loafers from 1999, without the horse bit. But it was square, and too ‘fashion.’ Instead, we wanted a silhouette that you can wear for the next 20 years.”
Cut from the finest Italian suede and nubuck, with the men’s and women’s versions built on the same last, the shoe’s automotive detailing whispers rather than shouts. The cross-stitching on the vamp is lifted from classic steering-wheel design, and each sole is colored in British Racing Green. But that’s it: no flashy logos, no go-faster stripes.
“I wanted Connolly to have a shoe that looked like it had been in the brand for the past 50 years,” says González. “Not something created now, but something timeless that you might find in your parents’ wardrobe.”
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