Men Shoes After Dark:A Friday on Melrose

1.The Unfinished Window

Leonardo arrived on Melrose a little after eight on Friday morning.The loading space in front of the store was occupied by a delivery van,so he carried his tools from the corner in two trips.

The store was due to open that evening.Most of the clothing had been unpacked,but the front window still contained only two aluminum platforms and a paper sign taped to the glass.

Leonardo worked on displays for small clothing stores,record labels,and local events.He preferred jobs that allowed him to build things by hand.This one included an old stadium seat,a wooden cabinet,and several painted panels stored in the basement.

Mara,the stylist,arrived while he was measuring the window.She had brought dark denim,a striped shirt,a suede coat,and six footwear boxes.

“Calvin wants the red seat in front,” she said.

Leonardo looked at the seat,then at the street outside.“Let’s see how it looks with everything else.”

Mara put down the boxes and went to find the steamer.

2.A Pair Beside the Workbench

His black loafers had a scrape near the right heel and pale marks across both soles.They were the pair he usually wore for installations.He could stand in them for a full day,and he did not mind getting tape or dust on the leather.

A packing list was sitting on the workbench.The heading men shoes appeared above twelve stock numbers.Leonardo checked the numbers against the boxes while Mara steamed the shirts near the stockroom door.

The first box held burgundy loafers.The leather looked darker indoors than it had in the buyer’s office.Leonardo placed them on one aluminum platform beside the red stadium seat,then walked outside to check them through the glass.The two colors blended more than he expected.

He carried the seat to the opposite side of the window.The empty area behind the footwear now looked larger,so he brought up one painted panel from the basement and rested it against the wall.

Mara joined him on the sidewalk.

“Are we moving the seat again?”

“Probably.”

She went back inside to finish the shirts.

3.Letters Cut by Hand

The sign company had delivered the store name in the wrong typeface.The letters were narrow and formal,closer to a hotel entrance than a shop selling denim and sneakers.A replacement could not arrive until Monday.

Leonardo spread black vinyl across a folding table and began cutting a new set of letters.His first E leaned to the left.He removed it from the glass,cut another,and placed the damaged one under his tool case so it would not stick to anyone’s clothes.

A bakery employee from next door paused outside to watch.She was wearing green clogs with a navy apron and carrying a box of paper cups.When Leonardo stepped onto the sidewalk,she told him the second letter looked better.

“I thought so too,” he said.

She nodded at the stadium seat.“That came from a school?”

“A salvage yard in Riverside.”

“It looks like something from my old gym.”

Leonardo returned to the table.She remained outside for another minute before carrying the cups into the bakery.

4.The Fitting Room Argument

Around eleven,Mara dressed the first display form in the striped shirt and straight dark denim.Calvin,the store owner,wanted the trousers to rest over the burgundy loafers.Mara pinned them above the ankle.

They asked Leonardo while he was attaching a panel to the rear wall.He came down from the ladder,removed two pins,and lowered the hem by less than an inch.

Mara had left a buying report on the counter.One section was titled designer shoes for men and included photographs of loafers,boots,and low-profile sneakers.The styling showed nearly every trouser at the same cropped length.

“That’s why I went shorter,” she said,turning the report around.

Leonardo looked at the pages,then at the display form.“Those floors are empty.We have the cabinet and the stadium chair behind it.”

He tried the longer hem again.The denim sat better over the shoe,but the striped shirt seemed too formal with it.Mara replaced the shirt with a pale work shirt from the sales rack.They left the striped one hanging nearby.Calvin said he wanted to compare them again later.

5.What the Store Had Missed

Before lunch,Leonardo lined up all six pairs against the wall.Five had dark uppers and thick soles.The sixth was a white sneaker that became the brightest part of the room whenever the front door opened.

He checked the store’s men shoes page on a tablet to see what else was in stock.A tobacco-colored lace-up appeared halfway down the page.Calvin checked the number and found one pair in the basement.

The box came upstairs in a grocery cart with a loose front wheel.Leonardo placed the lace-ups beneath the pale shirt and moved the burgundy loafers to the other platform.He had added too much metal around them,so he removed a silver cube and left it near the back wall.

Calvin came out of the office and studied the window.

“Where did the striped shirt go?”

“Behind the register.”

“I liked it.”

Mara held it beside the display form.Calvin looked at both shirts for a few seconds,then his phone rang.He carried the striped one into the office with him and returned it ten minutes later.

6.Lunch on the Loading Dock

They ate behind the building because the front room was full of open boxes.Calvin had ordered pastrami sandwiches,but the restaurant sent one turkey sandwich and three bags of fries.Mara took the turkey.Leonardo found an orange soda in the refrigerator and wiped plaster dust from the can.

The back door of a small theater faced the same alley.A costume assistant came outside carrying a roll of fabric.She wore black boots with old paint along one side.Mara asked where she had bought them.

“An estate sale in Pasadena,” she said.“They were under a card table with some gardening tools.”

She stayed for a few minutes and ate some of the extra fries.Someone inside the theater played the same piano passage several times.A mechanic from the tire shop turned up his radio.

Leonardo checked the time on his phone.They had a little more than six hours before opening.He finished half the sandwich,wrapped the rest,and put it on a shelf inside.Calvin took the last bag of fries back to his office.

7.The Denim Test

After lunch,Leonardo tried three different pairs of trousers on the second display form.The cropped pair exposed too much of the lace-up.The widest pair covered most of the toe.The straight denim worked better,but one leg twisted below the knee.

Mara steamed it again while Leonardo adjusted the platform.He had set the rear leg on a cable.Once he moved the cable,the form stood properly and the trouser fell straighter.

A folded flyer slipped from Mara’s tote.It advertised a rooftop film screening in West Hollywood that evening.A friend had given her two passes.

“You should come after we finish,” she said.

Leonardo looked down at his shirt.There was a line of adhesive across one sleeve.

“I have another shirt in the car.”

“I’ll leave the pass here.”

She placed it beside his phone.They returned to the display without discussing it further.

By three,the denim was pinned and the platform stood level.The silver cube was still near the rear wall,and nobody had found a use for it.

8.Across Fairfax

A metal sign intended for the back of the store was waiting at a fabrication shop near Fairfax.Leonardo offered to collect it.The walk took longer than expected because one section of sidewalk was closed.

He passed a barber in pleated trousers and bright basketball sneakers.Two workers ate beside a food truck in dusty boots.A student crossed the street in canvas slip-ons covered with pen marks.Near the intersection,a man unloading speakers wore red running shoes with paint-spattered jeans.

The fabrication shop shared a narrow building with a shoe-repair counter.A printed card in the window advertised casual shoes for men,work boots,heel repairs,and key cutting.One corner of the card had faded almost white.

The fabricator’s son brought out the metal sign.He had drilled the mounting holes on the wrong side,so Leonardo waited while he corrected them.A small television behind the counter showed a baseball game with the sound off.

Twenty minutes later,Leonardo carried the sign back under one arm.He arrived with metal dust on his trousers and bought a bottle of water from the bakery next door.

9.The Cabinet from the Basement

When Leonardo returned,the front window looked clean,but the new platforms and freshly steamed clothing made the whole display feel too recently assembled.

He went downstairs and found a wooden cabinet near the freight door.A strip of masking tape across the back read men shoes in black marker.The cabinet had once held extra stock at the original location.Calvin had listed it for storage because the doors no longer closed evenly.

Leonardo brought it upstairs with help from the building porter.They placed it beneath the aluminum platform.The cabinet was too tall,leaving the footwear nearly level with the shirt.

He removed the small wooden feet and tried again.One screw rolled beneath a clothing rack.Mara found it several minutes later after moving two boxes and a bag of hangers.

Calvin disliked the cabinet,but he did not ask Leonardo to remove it.He walked outside twice to view it through the glass.On the second trip,he photographed the window and sent the image to someone.

When he came back inside,he asked the porter to take the unused silver cube downstairs.

10.The Customer Before Opening

At four-thirty,a longtime customer entered through the side door.He had known Calvin for years and said he only wanted to see the new location.Within a few minutes,he was trying on the tobacco lace-ups.

His son was getting married in Santa Barbara.The ceremony would be outdoors,but the invitation requested formal clothing.The customer had received a twelve-page document explaining transportation,colors,and the schedule for the weekend.

He showed Leonardo a photograph of the suit.The trousers had not been hemmed yet.

“Bring the suit when you collect it,” Leonardo said.“Then try everything together.”

“I was hoping to finish this today.”

“You can.I’d leave the trousers a little longer than the photo.”

The customer walked between the register and the front window.He asked Mara for another size,even though the first pair seemed right.The second pair slipped at the heel,so he changed back.

His wife called while he was standing at the counter.He described the color as brown,then corrected himself and said tobacco.Mara wrote the stock number on the box while he continued the conversation.

He bought the first pair and left through the side door.

11.Under the Store Lights

As the afternoon faded,the overhead lamps turned the burgundy leather nearly brown.Leonardo adjusted one track light and switched off another.The color returned,but the pale work shirt now looked gray.He replaced the bulb with one from the stockroom.

A delivery arrived during the test.Two cartons were marked men sneakers on the warehouse labels.Inside were navy low-tops with gum soles.Mara wanted to add a pair to the front window.

Leonardo set them beneath the straight denim.They worked from inside the store,but through the glass they competed with the shirt and the red seat.He moved them to a small stand near the register instead.

Mara viewed the stand from the entrance.“That area needed something.”

“The lamp is too high.”

They found a lower one in the basement,but its cord would not reach the outlet.The porter brought an extension cable and taped it behind the counter.

Leonardo cleared his tools from the window.He found one screwdriver beneath the stadium seat and another inside the wooden cabinet.

12.Before the Doors Opened

Shortly after six,Leonardo removed the suede coat from the first display form.Calvin had selected it weeks earlier.Once the platforms,chair,and cabinet were in place,the coat looked too formal for the rest of the window.

Mara brought over a faded bowling shirt with rust-colored embroidery above the pocket.It had two small repairs near the hem and had already been steamed for the sales floor.

They changed the shirt.Calvin was helping someone with the card reader and did not see the replacement until the doors were about to open.

He stood in front of the window and asked where the coat had gone.

Mara pointed to a rack behind him.

Calvin looked at his watch.“Keep it there for tonight.”

The first guests were waiting outside.He unlocked the door while Leonardo pushed the folding table into the stockroom.One of the new letters had begun to lift from the glass.Leonardo pressed it back into place before joining the others.

13.The Rooftop Screening

Leonardo stayed at the store for the first hour.The older customer returned with his wife,who wanted to see the lace-ups under the brighter lamps.A local DJ arrived wearing a football jersey over wide trousers,and two women from the bakery brought pastries for the staff.

Around eight,Leonardo changed in the stockroom.He kept the black loafers and canvas trousers but replaced his work shirt with a dark camp-collar shirt.The rooftop passes were still beside his bag.

The screening drew costume workers,musicians,store buyers,and people Leonardo recognized without knowing their names.Near the projector,two buyers were discussing luxury shoes for men and delivery dates for the following season.One wore an ivory suit with running shoes.The other had changed into leather boots after leaving work.

Leonardo and Mara sat near the back.The film began late,and the projector lost focus during the opening scene.Someone corrected it after a few minutes.

Mara handed Leonardo a paper tray of chips.They had missed dinner,and the pastries from the store were already gone.He ate while she tried to identify an actor in the second scene.

14.A Question During Intermission

During the break,a production designer named Ellis introduced himself.Calvin had sent him a short video of the new display.The subject line read men shoes window,and Ellis had recognized the red stadium seat from the salvage yard in Riverside.

“I nearly bought the whole row last year,” Ellis said.

“It was gone when I got there.”

“I didn’t have anywhere to put it anyway.”

Ellis asked about the black loafers Leonardo was wearing.The scrape near the heel had darkened since morning.Leonardo had bought them during a job in New York,but he could not remember the store name without checking an old receipt.

Someone called Ellis from the projector area,and he excused himself.The break ended before he returned.

Leonardo sat down and found that Mara had taken the last of the chips.She handed him the empty tray so he could put it under his chair.He left it there until the house lights came on.

15.Melrose After Midnight

After the screening,Leonardo and Mara walked several blocks before finding a car.Mara carried her heels in one hand and wore folding flats from her bag.Leonardo checked his pockets for the store keys,then remembered he had returned them to Calvin.

They passed the shop on the way east.The main room was dark,but the front window was still lit.The bowling shirt looked better from across the street.The cabinet was barely visible behind the platform,and the red seat caught the light from the upper lamp.

Two people paused at the window.One pointed at the burgundy loafers while the other read the paper card announcing Saturday’s hours.They moved on before Leonardo and Mara reached the corner.

Mara asked whether he wanted to check the side door.Leonardo showed her Calvin’s message confirming that everything was locked.

They continued down the block and found a narrow restaurant with four tables still occupied.Leonardo ordered eggs,rice,and toast.Mara asked for the same plate with extra hot sauce.His phone was nearly dead,so he plugged it into an outlet beside the table and left it there while they ate.