The tailored last footwear design consultancy offers a full trend research package. Contact us to see how we can help your brand reach it’s full potential.
‘Images taken from ‘white out’ trend pack’
The art of perfection
The tailored last footwear design consultancy offers a full trend research package. Contact us to see how we can help your brand reach it’s full potential.
‘Images taken from ‘the art of perfection’ trend pack’
Geo
The tailored last footwear design consultancy offers a full trend research package. Contact us to see how we can help your brand reach it’s full potential.
‘Images taken from Geo trend pack’
Zoo
The tailored last footwear design consultancy offers a full trend research package. Contact us to see how we can help your brand reach it’s full potential.
‘Images taken from Zoo trend pack’
You are either in your bed or in your shoes, so it pays to invest in both
John Wildsmith
Mahabis
Welcome to the slipper revival
It’s not everyday that you find a new emerging brand that captures your undivided attention and stops you in your tracks.
As a designer and lover or footwear I always find it so inspiring to find something so new and exciting that I just can’t wait to own a pair.
Together with designer extraordinaire Mr Bailey, Mahabis have created a ground breaking concept and I for one have put my name down for the first shipment.
Mahabis – welcome to the slipper revival!
Sometime last year we realised that some of our most mundane objects are some of our most loved, but some of our most underserved. In one hand you often carry a highly technical and sculpted consumer electronics device; decades of R&D combined to make a beautiful crafted piece of electronics. And then you slip-on some ill-fitting novelty rabbit slipper, designed to look like you’re walking around in a mattress.
We thought this wasn’t right. This can’t be our only option.
We found out we weren’t the only ones who wanted better slippers. So we started work on mahabis. We wanted to create a product that was beautiful to look at, but paid a nod to the heritage around a product that is centuries old – but also added features fit for a new century, a new time.
Its features, from the collapsible back, designed to make the slipper not only easy to put on, but so that it can be worn like a mule, pays its homage to the Moroccan babouche (and many a broken pair of Vans) to our unique detachable soles, that enable you to customise your mahabis, but also to where your slippers indoors and outdoors. We’ve tried to create a completely new type of footwear experience.
Ankur -Founder, mahabis
Rose Choules
Moccasin Atelier -part 2
Time fly’s and you remember to finish the blog post you started some weeks ago about your course with seasoned moccasin atelier rose choules.
I had opted for a one to one two day intensive course with rose, since having some experience in footwear making I wanted to refresh my skills but also learn the process from start to finish.
Rose is extremely easy to talk to and her teaching style is relaxed and informative. I’d forgotten how good it is to be in a teaching environment again and to be learning more about something you love.
My wife had requested a bespoke pair of moccasins made to order so the bar had been set quite high!
Rose had a great selection of antelope suedes and hair on leather with some amazing animal prints, something I knew my wife would approve of.
After spending the first day making the pattern day two was spent cutting the patterns ready for construction.
After a full day of learning different construction techniques and sewing styles we unfortunately ran out of time. At 6.30 pm on the sunday evening it was time to call it a day, but with a great offer from rose I returned during the week. I had hand stitched the vamps at the rented cottage we where using for our weeks break and rose helped me to put the finishing touches to the moccasins I had made.
Rose can be contacted thru her website www.rosechoules.com for more information.
Finally I’d like to say a big thank you to rose for all her help.
Thank you!
Number 288
Keeping with the theme of hand finishing , hand stitching we look at New York-based footwear label Number 288 and their Fall/Winter 2014 collection.
Designers Jung Suh and Benyam Assefa, graduates of the Parsons School of Design, build on their intentional backgrounds (respectively from South Korea and Ethiopia), creating traditional sneakers with modern twists. Their debut styles feature an array of looks, from mid-tops in hairy Portuguese suede to Italian leather tennis shoes with asymmetrical lacings.
Each shoe features the brand’s “II VIII VIII” logo hand stitched on the spine of the heel.
No. 288 was conceived as a new standard in classically influenced menswear design and diverse international lifestyle aesthetic. No. 288 respects the traditional methods of footwear construction, as well as mixing original ideas in producing a new alternative in craftsmanship.
Number 288
We for one, love this collection and can’t wait to get our hands on a pair or two!
HANDMADE LEATHER BIO TRAINER 1 BY FEIT
Following on from our handmade series of blog posts today we bring you something completely new. It’s not everyday luxury shoemaker FEIT break the boundaries of the hand made footwear sector. This time, they give us the new Bio Trainer 1, 100% hand-sewn from vegetable-died leather featuring a buffalo leather support for breathability and heat absorption.
After a lengthy design process we developed our own 100% natural latex rubber sole made out of the milk of Hevea Brasiliensis (rubber tree).
The milk, harvested by hand in France, is poured into steel molds immersed in warm water. After one hour the sole is transferred into a cold water bath. Cold water immersion lasts up to 24 hours and helps to keep the pores open while the material cures.
The soles are then placed into a hot air dryer which is lined with hundreds of wooden shelves like that of a bakery. After 24 hours of drying, the soles are re-immersed into cold water for one week until they are trimmed and inspected for imperfections.
This two week journey results in a light and naturally flexible sole that contains no plastic.
While not for the gym, or an aggressive jog this shoe will keep you comfortable and cool.
We have to say this is one we’d definitely like to add to our footwear collection.
