They are probably blind welts, used on pumps and court shoes. I think that (the long-gone) Joseph Box was probably the most renowned maker of such delicacy and his stuff is in the Powerhouse Museum, down your way...

A link:

http://images.powerhousemuseum.com/imag … 196825.jpg

Last edited by NJS (2012-01-20 15:37:24)

Some blokes on a car forum discuss shoos. l bet you some of those chaps are igents that run lose on the clothing forums. They don't know much about much, but some of them have all the good stuff.
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334400

A shoe fitting at John Lobb Paris:
http://coolechicstyletodressitalian.blo … paris.html

The world's best handmade shoes (fun article)
http://theimagebuilders.wordpress.com/tag/custom-shoes/

http://www.fashionjunkii.com/FJ-Men-Wha … s-15669214

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-01-20 16:39:26)

NJS wrote:

Why do you yearn for Lobb, Paris?

For a few reasons at least.

1). They use the finest leathers in the world that no-one else has access to (the Hermes' connection)
2). They do two fittings (two trial shoes; one in plastic and the other in leather)
3). They make a perfect looking shoe that i've dreamed of owning all my life.

ln other words...l just want to have the very best of the best because l feel l deserve to experience that, l wanna know what it's like to have the finest shoe humanly possible!

l never knew what JLP was when l was young, but l still dreamed of shoes of that style and quality without ever having seen anything like it before. But when l did see such shoes online it was like an old memory coming back to me which makes me think l was possibly a bespoke shoemaker or a client in a previous life. lt's funny...i've never seen any of these shoes in real life, but l still remember them well like old friends.

l understand that Hermes' have one employee located at each tannery whose only job is to inspect all the top quality hides and send them back to France. Most of the time he is not working (he is just sitting around), but he is still employed full time and pays a very large premium to get first pick of the leather when it first comes in. So with the fittings and the premium paid for the leather, l can understand why the shoes are so expensive. lt would be nice to own one pair, but with all the travelling, accomodation costs and time taken out to make the six 24 hour airplane journey's, it would just be too much to take on.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-01-21 06:47:27)

4F Hepcat wrote:

I have to say, I really don't like the look of Lobb's sandals and most of the shoes on their website look too dainty to me. Same as Edward Green. And yet, I know they produce wonderfully masculine shoes and are the best at what the do, but they both also produce prissy ones that I really am at loss why any male would spend that kind of money on. Of course, I am in neither Edward Green's or John Lobbs demographic, so my opinion is quite irrelevant.

It would be nice to buy a pair of Lobb, just for the hell of it, but I am pretty much sure that the couple of thousand pounds extra are not going to translate noticeably into added comfort or qualities that can readily justify the expense and hastle of the fittings. Tim Little does fully bespoke shoes for around 1,500GBP, which would be a possibly good place to start before getting really stung with a pair of Lobb's.

What was Lord Lucan's shoe maker, NJS posted the link a couple of months ago? Fine looking shoes indeed.

W S Foster & Son - but I doubt that they are cheaper than Lobb. The chairman has got Jimmy Goldsmith's lasts on his desk! So that whole set went there. They also have pairs of lasts for Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Fred Astaire but I think that they came from Peal & Co, after they closed (where Terry Moore was apprenticed).

NJS wrote:

4F Hepcat wrote:

I have to say, I really don't like the look of Lobb's sandals and most of the shoes on their website look too dainty to me. Same as Edward Green. And yet, I know they produce wonderfully masculine shoes and are the best at what the do, but they both also produce prissy ones that I really am at loss why any male would spend that kind of money on. Of course, I am in neither Edward Green's or John Lobbs demographic, so my opinion is quite irrelevant.

It would be nice to buy a pair of Lobb, just for the hell of it, but I am pretty much sure that the couple of thousand pounds extra are not going to translate noticeably into added comfort or qualities that can readily justify the expense and hastle of the fittings. Tim Little does fully bespoke shoes for around 1,500GBP, which would be a possibly good place to start before getting really stung with a pair of Lobb's.

What was Lord Lucan's shoe maker, NJS posted the link a couple of months ago? Fine looking shoes indeed.

W S Foster & Son - but I doubt that they are cheaper than Lobb. The chairman has got Jimmy Goldsmith's lasts on his desk! So that whole set went there. They also have pairs of lasts for Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Fred Astaire but I think that they came from Peal & Co, after they closed (where Terry Moore was apprenticed).

Fosters are about £2,000 l believe. G&G are around £2,400 and l believe Lobb Paris are about £5,000 for calf.

formby wrote:

5 grand for a pair of shoes is taking the piss and I don't care how many fittings they have and how good the leathers, you're are paying for the name and the address.

Find a small maker who can work with you.

Then there is Russian grain leather which is naff city

Film Noir Buff wrote:

formby wrote:

5 grand for a pair of shoes is taking the piss and I don't care how many fittings they have and how good the leathers, you're are paying for the name and the address.

Find a small maker who can work with you.

Then there is Russian grain leather which is naff city

That will be these, made by C&J's for New and Lingwood, a mere 1,250GBP a throw:

http://www.newandlingwood.com/category.php?id=13

Of course, its getting embarrassing now as the limited supply of this fabled shipwrecked leather, appears to be infact, quite infinite.

NJS wrote:

I think that it's the Hermes branding that gets the money from the celebrities and other insecure, monied morons, who don't know their arses from their elbows, or sh1t from pudding, who think that if Hermes (swoon) charge them 5,000 for a pair of shoes then they are bound to be better than anything else: the hurdle of ignorance is cleared at one expensive bound. Terry Moore makes bespoke, waxed calf top boots for 5,000 - and that is a craft.

JL Paris is the best. Fact. Period.

http://www.styleforum.net/t/59658/why-l … oke-is-the

How can 5,000GBP shoes appear so decidedly average?

The brown ones have cracks in the leather, and the black Oxfords are starkly uninteresting. How much of JLP business is repeat? That would be interesting.

Film Noir Buff wrote:

NJS wrote:

I think that it's the Hermes branding that gets the money from the celebrities and other insecure, monied morons, who don't know their arses from their elbows, or sh1t from pudding, who think that if Hermes (swoon) charge them 5,000 for a pair of shoes then they are bound to be better than anything else: the hurdle of ignorance is cleared at one expensive bound. Terry Moore makes bespoke, waxed calf top boots for 5,000 - and that is a craft.

THey should be able to rely on old world companies to kit them out properly. Here's the thing. If you aren't from the right background with the right tastes and values, then you are an object of ridicule and scorn, ultimately ostracized by "people like us". However, isn't it also that "people like us" are exclusionary snobs and the wrong people will never be accepted no matter what, so why shouldn't they get whatever they want and conspicuously consume?

Should those who can never compete with the elite bother to try or should they establish their own counter or parrallel culture?

The very great thing about the Britain that I remember with affectionate pride is that there was always room for more 'people like us', provided that they made the effort. Brummell is the greatest example of social mobility in action - grandfather a valet and father a sweet shop and lodging house keeper, made good; result: the style icon of his time, arguably of modern times, as none has ever really matched. The trouble with modern celebrities, such as the Beckhams is that they revel in the contrast between their resolute ignorance and their extreme wealth and popular influence.

The_Shooman wrote:

NJS wrote:

The heels are too high

Good observation, it looks like they are pushing the nose of the shoe into the ground.


l wonder if the JLP makers take more time to make them than the other English makers.

They are like the heels that the squat Edward VII used to have - ridiculous. Somehow Frank Sinatra pulled off higher heels much better but then he was a dynamo. JLP may even use the same piece-workers as the London shop.

FNB - I don't see the counter-culture in JLP I fear - just an expensive copycat (and not a terribly good one either). Hermes, Gucci, Versace, Lauren: these guys, through the glossies and 'film stars', have got 'fashion' by the short and curlies. They have convinced a core group of advertizers that they are the dog's bollocks and a myth is created.

Shooey - the last pair of Lobb shoes that I had made (a while ago, admittedly) had a fitting and a resulting slight adjustment.

Last edited by NJS (2012-01-21 12:49:42)

NJS wrote:

The_Shooman wrote:

NJS wrote:

The heels are too high

Good observation, it looks like they are pushing the nose of the shoe into the ground.


l wonder if the JLP makers take more time to make them than the other English makers.

They are like the heels that the squat Edward VII used to have - ridiculous. Somehow Frank Sinatra pulled off higher heels much better but then he was a dynamo. JLP may even use the same piece-workers as the London shop.

FNB - I don't see the counter-culture in JLP I fear - just an expensive copycat (and not a terribly good one either). Hermes, Gucci, Versace, Lauren: these guys, through the glossies and 'film stars', have got 'fashion' by the short and curlies. They have convinced a core group of advertizers that they are the dog's bollocks and a myth is created.

Shooey - the last pair of Lobb shoes that I had made (a while ago, admittedly) had a fitting and a resulting slight adjustment.

I don't know that JLP is a counter culture firm. What I meant was that many of their clientele are counter culture or just from different social or cultural backgrounds than the core culture is used to. I wonder if they should need to chase the people-like-us (PLU) culture around or if instead they should indulge their own tastes. Is it better to aspire to something you are not, even if it is superior, or is it better to be original, even if it is crass. If an alien plutocrat shows up wearing a mink suit that cost $100,000, jade silk shirt, pancaldi tie and baby poop colored double monks made from dinosaur hide, is that any worse than if he showed up wearing a charcoal striped suit,black cap toed shoes, bengal striped shirt and simple spot tie? Slick vs a complete visual fraud.