Bespoke shoes are not just footwear. They are works of art. At least they are if they are made by the firm of George Cleverley & Co., which I believe makes the finest shoes in the world. Its modest but elegant emporium, just off London’s Bond Street, has been my destination so many times over the years that I now regard it with the sort of affection most people reserve for their favourite picture gallery. Art requires skill and craftsmanship (‘conceptual art’ is nothing more than the modern form of the Emperor’s new clothes), and both are present in abundance at number 13 The Royal Arcade.
There you will find the two upstanding gentlemen who continue to ‘make’ for some of our planet’s most famous feet. (As I left. a chauffeur arrived “to collect his Lordship’s shoes.”) They are George Glasgow and John Carnera. They have the modest courtesy of true craftsmen. I have observed in my travels that those who strive for perfection frequently have in their demeanour a quiet patience – born, I suspect, of knowing that the best cannot be achieved by way of the short cut. Mr Glasgow is a Londoner, born in Pimlico to Irish parents. When he is not overseeing the shop, he travels to the United States and Japan, to measure those who are unable to visit London to place their orders. He has acted in films, and wherever I go in London people of all sorts know this genial and amusing fellow. The family of Mr Carnera (who now enjoys a well-earned semi-retirement) has its origins in Northern Italy. His uncle was Primo Carnera, the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1933 and 1934. (My pictures show Mr Glasgow with your correspondent, and Mr Carnera wearing his usual white overall.)
The great George Cleverley himself is no longer with us – having gone in 1991, full of years and distinction, to the great Boot-maker in the sky. (You can glimpse a framed photograph of him in one of the pictures of my shoes.) His principles and his style have been carried on by his pupils, Messrs Glasgow and Carnera. This means the use of only the finest materials: the leather for the upper part of each shoe comes from the Freudenburg Company, near Cologne; that for the soles is oak-bark tanned at Baker’s thousand year-old tannery in Colyton, Devon. And it means lightness in the construction and design. For example, the heels of my new shoes are slightly tapered. Details like this are not only delightful in themselves: they also impart harmony and delicacy to the overall appearance.
The process for making a pair of bespoke shoes is six-fold. First, feet are measured and the outline of each is drawn in the pattern book. Second, a last is made of beechwood, to the size and shape of each foot. This pair of lasts is unique to each customer, but can be modified – by addition or subtraction – as feet change over the years. The company has several thousand lasts stored carefully. And mine are among them, so the procedure for my new shoes began at this point.
After the uppers had been made around my lasts, there was the fitting. Even with the shoes in this unfinished state, the quality of the workmanship shone through. I had chosen the Adelaide design – semi-brogues, with bevelled waists, close welts, 2 rows of brads at each toe, toe-caps punched with my own ‘FB’ monogram and the famous Cleverley “hint of chisel” toes. I had also decided upon unusual colours for the leather – red and black: red for the body and black for the toe-caps, the facings and the back counters. The linings would be of an exquisite pink leather. Three months passed before the fitting, and another three months before the completion of the remaining two stages: the welting of the soles to the upper bodies and the polishing of the completed shoes, and finally the making of the shoe trees.
The call came that my new shoes were ready. And they are - as I hope the pictures show - magnificent. Notice, please, all the details I have listed above. And notice, too, my Impressionistic vision of the shaping of the underside of the leather sole.
Sometimes the highest sartorial standards demand a degree of discomfort. But not in this case. Indeed, so snug and light are Cleverley’s shoes that it is easy to imagine that one is shoe-less – and there can be no better praise for the fitting than that. Of course, bespoke shoes of this quality are not cheap. You should think around £4,000 a pair. But is not the best worth more than the run-of-the-mill? After all, what price a work of art? And with proper care and maintenance, these shoes should last for twenty years – for Cleverley’s shoes are famously hard-wearing.
The finest shoes in the world are for art-loving gentlemen of taste and aesthetic discernment. That is why I know Cleverley’s are the right shoes for readers of Bown’s Bespoke.
13 The Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, London W1S 4SL, England.
Telephone +44 (0)207 493 0443 or 1058
Fax +44 (0)207 493 4991
Email: enquiries@gjcleverley.co.uk
www.gjcleverley.co.uk
