While I often wear a size 11 in 'regular' shoes without padding or removeable insoles, my usual size for shoes WITH removeable insoles, or athletic type shoes with significant padding inside, is 11.5, and 11.5 is what I ordered.
Upon trying them on, the Hawthorne proved to be the perfect length, and a little snug across my instep at the lowest eyelets, even when the laces were not tied. Not a lot, not painful, but enough to notice. I decided to wear them anyway, and found that when the laces were pulled up and tied, the snugness sort of "evenly distributed itself" across my entire instep, i.e. the tension across the lowest eyelets was reduced as the tension at the other eyelets increased, creating a snug, but comfortable fit.

The shoes are made of nubuck leather, with a thick, cushy insole. After wearing them for several days with the laces pulled fairly tight, the insole conformed somewhat to the shape of the bottom of my foot, and the leather relaxed a bit and loosened up to a very comfortable fit, not floppy loose, not uncomfortably snug, but just about right. After wearing them for a while, they are approximately as comfortable as my Streetcars, which is to say, VERY comfortable, although the Streetcars are slightly less casual in style, with shiny leather and a more square toe. I agree with the other reviewer who stated that the Hawthorne somewhat resembles a skate shoe, with the eyelets spaced a little bit farther apart than some other shoes.

The Hawthornes are shaped a lot like a human foot, wide at the front and narrower at the heel. They do appear to turn up very slightly more at the toe than some of my other shoes, but this doesn't look or feel bad to me, it is just part of the style of the shoe. The outer sole is pretty squishy and when walking, can be felt to compress under my foot. The heel has a rounded profile which makes driving easy as well. I often wear them with medium weight "work" socks, although the fit can be tuned further by wearing lighter weight socks if desired. The interior of the shoe and tongue is lined with an absorbent padding which completely surrounds my foot, so thick, cushy socks are not really needed. I wear them often for hours at a time, and don't experience any fatigue at all.

I'd say that if you tend to buy your athletic shoes to fit very snug in the first place (many women tend to do this so as to make their feet look smaller), then perhaps you should order these 1/2 size larger. If you buy your athletic shoes to fit comfortably out of the box, you could probably order your regular size and expect them to break in in a couple of days...I ordered my regular "comfortable fit" athletic shoe size, and I think if I had ordered 1/2 size larger that these would have been too long and would have become a sloppy fit after they broke in. Remember, like any leather shoe, and unlike many plastic shoes, the leather WILL give a little bit over the first several days.