Beauty in the Detail

I have said it ten trillion times before and I will at least say it once more: the beauty of a shoe (and it's pattern) is in the detail. Roberto Ugolini hit that detail right on the head with this lovely rendition of a saddle shoe. Not only do I like the little notch that he created on the saddle part itself, but even more intrigued by the fact that he added a heel counter to a saddle shoe, which I don't believe that I have ever seen before and find it to be quite appealing. I only wished that he would have used different colors in this shoe as I don't feel like the contrast between saddle and rest of shoe is as prominent as could be in order to do the proper justice of highlighting these details....but then again sometimes beauty is in the subtlety....nah, I like boldness! Nevertheless, a beautiful shoe indeed and hat is off to whoever designed it whether it have been Mr. Ugolini himself, this shop in Japan or the client who owns them....brilliant execution of a saddle!

Pics courtesy of: CC-Coccinella

Leather Quality – How It Varies

Perfect leather all the way around....top grade too

Let me start by saying that this is a long, yet informative post.

I made a comment on the blog the other day in reference to one shoemaker’s leather being typically of a lesser quality with respects to another maker. Not necessarily that it was a low quality, only that within the grades of high quality, one was lower than the other. This comment threw off the reader as he was under the impression that leather qualities were of like-quality across the board of handgrade shoes, ranging from brands AS to C&J to EG. Let me first start by saying that this is definitely not the case. They all use different quality leathers and while some might even come from the same tannery that does not necessarily mean that they are using the same leather or rather, using it in the same way, which does make a difference and I will explain it below. Plus there is a reason why some shoes cost more than others and a big part of that is the leather, especially as it is the component that makes up 95% of the shoe. (From this point onwards, let’s start by assuming that we are talking about factories that make shoes that retail for +£300.

Now prior to making this comment, I had an idea about how the leathers differ as I touch them every day, all day long and can feel the difference. Not to mention that I own a lot of shoes from many makers…. But because I did not have a factual answer to give, I had to go ask someone who would know, not only because they currently own their own factory, but have worked for others as well. That being, when a factory buys leather from the tannery, they are usually given an assortment of pieces/hides that come from grades 1-3 (1 being the highest, 3 being the lowest naturally) to then make their shoes with. I was previously under the impression that a factory could simply say, I want grade 1 leather and that is all. But clearly I was wrong. The way in which people then separate themselves is how they use all of that leather, as it greatly differs and here is the secret to why some shoemakers shoes are always brilliant and why others aren’t as prestigious….

A G&G above and a Handgrade C&J below....surely you can see the difference in quality...the G&G's leather is much more taut and smooth, as it should be for a price tag that is £200 more

Now to make things even more confusing, within a grade of leather, say grade 1, there are then around 5 sub-grades within that single grade. That being there are many options to choose from. So let’s assume that we are not talking about factories that are predominantly going to use only grade 1 leather. Now when you get a hide of leather there are certain parts of it that are better than others as there certain parts of the shoe that are more visible/prominent and thus considered more important than the others. For example, the toe box of a shoe is the part that everyone notices and sees and therefore needs to be of the utmost quality, usually the leather that is the tightest. And what part is the tightest? The spine area is, which would be the center of the hide. And the more that you go away from the center and thus reach the belly of the cow, the looser, wrinkly and veiny the leather gets.

An annoying discovery where my factory thought it would be intelligent to use a good piece of leather (the spine of what looks like lower end grade 1) and a bad piece (the belly of what looks like grade 2 leather) to make one pair of shoes.....now I have to send it back as a reject!!

Now assuming that a factory has this slab of leather in front of them and assuming that utilizing one slab to its maximum potential can cut you 4 pairs of shoes. Now the difference is that one factory, may use the center to cut out all of the toe pieces/plain toe vamps etc. and then use the side of the slab to cut all of the heels/quarters/facings and maximize that slab to the fullest in order to get 4 pairs out of it, but still using all grade 1 leather. But then there is the factory that only uses the center of that slab and gets only 1 pairs’ worth. Which shoe is better? So, you see that even though the leather is the same, the factories used it differently and one factory produced a shoe from only the best part of the cow while the other used parts that aren’t as good but put them in places not as noticeable and thus not as important.

A G&G and a EG....nearly identical but seems to be a slight difference in the leather used in the facing (could be wrong though)

That being, you see now how they all vary and how EG’s leather will be different from C&J handgrade, which will be different to G&G and Lobb and Corthay etc…. Plus then you have to factor in that a lot of them then get their leather from different tanneries that produce different types of leather. For example, many English factories tend to source leather from Italian/German/Polish tanneries that produce a thicker, heavier and thus stiffer leather whereas many French makers will get them from French tanneries that produce a typically lighter weight, thinner and thus more flexible leather. Whether one is better than the other is subjective really. I believe that the ones that British makers get tends to hold its shape a bit better where some very high grade French calf skin are so soft that they crease very easily. It does not take quality away from the leather but many people associate the idea of bad leather when it creates a lot of wrinkles. So as you can see, the leather quality to a shoe is a tricky concept grasp as there are so many components that make it up and thus comparing leather qualities is even trickier, but allow me to say that they are all different and some are definitely better than others…..

Belly used on the inside quarter/counter -- not great, but not uncommon for a shoe £200-£300

Sunday Shoe Porn!

Tom Ford

Gaziano & Girling

Edward Green

Il Quadrifoglio

Aubercy (above and below)

Bespoke Shoes from Poland - Tadeusz Januszkiewicz

It's always a pleasure coming into contact with shoes that you have always seen online but never in person. I have always been quite intrigued with shoemaking from the "Eastern" part of Europe, as it is quite different than your makers here in England/France/Italy. You find that their shoes tend to be a bit more heavy looking and feeling. That doesn't mean that they are like bricks or anything, as you can clearly see here, since this shoe is still quite refined. But it would appear that they either use tanneries that cut a thicker leather or that they really put a lot into the shoe, the stuff that you don't see on the surface, but feel when wearing them. You typically find that they too use a heavier sole, but this was clearly not the case in this model which looked to be a blind, almost pump like stitch, or even a blake stitch by hand. Hard to say really, but nonetheless what I loved most about this shoe was the immaculate shade of the leather and how lovely it shined up. It's a shame that Mr. Januszkiewicz, who is somewhere in his 80's, did not train anyone up to pass on his knowledge, but luckily he is not the only shoemaker in Poland, so we will just have to count on Mr. Jan Kielman to keep the trade alive....

Oh and by the way, they were only around £600 

New & Lingwood Throwbacks Loafers

The other day, I came across this loafer by New & Lingwood (as a customer brought it in for a shine) and noticed how its design was quite similar to my Marcos loafer. When I designed it I thought that I had created something quite unique by extending the penny strap all the way to the heel, but after seeing this, I really realize that the phrase, 'nothing is new under the sun,' has its significance for a reason. Even though the idea is similar, the execution is a bit different with respects to mine. I still appreciated it all the same though, especially as it shows thoughtful execution of design, something that I find New & Lingwood does quite well. The leather was exquisite and I was having a hard time understanding if this was a N&L made by C&J or EG. The leather quality made me think EG but it was not quite as refined as an EG would be which threw me off a bit...nonetheless, it was lovely and I was happy to see it as it was a bit different than your same 'ol tassel loafer!

Spectator To Die For!! (literally)

 

The key to creating great footwear is through experimentation and while you probably are sick and tired of hearing me harp on and on about all of the Japanese shoemakers and their skills, one cannot deny their ability to make beautiful pieces that stand out like an oasis in the Sahara desert! And most of them are created through their lack of fear in experimentation. This spectator not only defies the rationale behind the idea that 'nothing is perfect' but literally leaves me grasping for breath as I drool over the shape of the last, a shape that is so immaculately elegant yet extremely hard to achieve. What's even crazier is that their women's shoes are just as beautiful and elegant as their men's. So ladies, if you are interested in unique bespoke footwear, I believe that a trip to Japan is definitely in order, as it is for me!! The only problem is that the more that I discover new brands, such as TYE Shoemaker the more that I realize that a trip to Japan will just involve visits to shoemakers and not an actual holiday of appreciating the country for all of it's beauty. I will need a month there! Nevertheless, as I am sure that I will be able to justify it at some point in my life, until then I will continue tallying up the beauties, like these, that continue to define the epitome of great footwear!

MTO John Lobb William - Brilliant!!

Just in case you can't tell, that is green pebble grain on the left....beautiful!

The other day I was frequenting my favorite street, Jermyn St. (as I often do), seeing what the haps was on the latest and greatest. I walked by John Lobb's shop and was blown away by what I was seeing in their window display. Not only was there red suede double monks, but even more unique and impressive was the deep green pebble grain, that just might have to now fend (within my mind) for coolest leather ever! I walked in, took a few more pics and asked what was going on with all of the William's in fun & funky colors. They told me that at the current moment, they are offering a sort of MTO service on the William, where you can change the leather type and sole offering on the shoe, and boy do they have some unique options. Never have I really seen a green pebble of that nature, and it blew me away with its beauty (of course which my pics do not do justice to). But nonetheless, it is a nice service that they are offering and I can only wonder what leather goodies they have that I did not see.....