It's been a great week ...lots of making, designing, successful first fittings (I love it when the fit is good first time) and confirming stage two of a very creative design project we are involved with!
We are making shoes for a series of advertisements for Tim Page Carpets in Chelsea Harbour for super glossy home interiors magazine, World of Interiors. It is great fun and a creative challenge making shoes from their luxurious, colourful and patterned interiors fabrics, braiding and wallpaper. Here are the first two which are out now - and yes, the boots are handsewn! My personal favourite is the next one to appear...a ladies ribbon-ties platform! If you can, pop down to Tim Page to see the shoes that we have made so far.
Which leads me nicely onto the subject of colour. Men are being much more adventurous with their choice of shoe colours. You'll no doubt have seen more colour coming through in the men's fashion magazines and on the high street - lead by the indubitable Mr Hare who opened his new shop recently in Mayfair.
Our clients are starting to show their true colours too. Take the Battenberg's, for instance? They are well ahead of the fashion curve and, although they may not be to everyone's taste, they really show where we excel in bringing our customer's dream shoes to life.
Just imagine them on a sunny day, with a cream wool jacket and flannels or corduroys. I am certain that they will certainly hold their own in the fashion stakes in San Francisco and get a lot of attention. Our client is wearing them for the first time this week thanks to an 'Indian summer' so I'm looking forward to being sent pictures showing the chosen outfit in all its glory. He'll be the talk of the San Francisco men's style pages (and staying away from red wine)!
He will also be thrilled to hear that he has indeed started an all-pink trend! We had a fitting this week with an elegant black wholecut with a gorgeous pink kid lining. It is also this gentleman's first foray into bespoke shoes - who said guys were scared of colour? And there's more colour to come with brown derby's with citric lime accents and a permanganate lining; brown shrunken calf button boots with permanganate; and grey suede slip-ons coming through.
We've dubbed our bolder tasted customers 'the colourists' and we're looking forward to seeing many more of them in the future.
Mr Ducker will be back with more things shoemaking next week. Until then happy shoemaking!
