An oxblood Balmoral boot is what a man buys once black and brown are handled — and then wears first. Few put the boldest color they own on the most formal boot they own, which is exactly why it lands: it reads as taste, not as risk. Every Guillaume starts from the pattern that gives the model its name — closed lacing, one continuous seam from the laces back around the ankle dividing vamp from shaft, the hardest line on the boot to keep clean and the one that makes it dress rather than rugged. Its cap toe carries a single line of fine perforations along the seam. The oxblood is hand-burnished over top-grade European calfskin, worked toward near-black at the toe and heel and left open to burgundy across the vamp. Built on the 722 last, long and lean with a slight chisel toe; Goodyear welted by our artisans, one pair at a time, in a workshop in Almansa, on a full leather sole with a beveled waist. It combines with gray, navy, charcoal and denim the way black does, then adds the character black can't. Under gray flannel it's the one thing in the outfit doing something, and still correct enough for the room it walks into. Black is the safe answer. Oxblood is the one that gets asked about.