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 Designer's sketch for Hessian boots We were given this sketch to use to create the military boots for the Old Globe’s summer season. To make them more versatile we were asked to design a way to add a tassel as needed for what ever production they might be used for in the future. We created a channel at the tip of the trim to allow that flexibility.
 Finished Hessian boots These are the finished boots. To keep them close to historically accurate, the toes were made without the stiff boxing giving them a soft front. They really finished off the red, gold and white uniforms. On stage they gleamed.
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 Star Wars bounty hunter boots We just finished a translation of the Bouchh boots for a customer who dresses as Princess Leia. Finding a good 360 degree view proved to be a challenge. We knew that the base boot was a popular boots worn at the time but the shin piece that was worn over it was harder to figure out. We put a zipper up the inside of the leg instead of what appeared to be velcro at the back to give it a cleaner look and guessed at the inner leg detail of the ankle strap. The client was very pleased with the end result and will be wearing it to a cancer fund raiser.
The Pittsburgh Public Theater is putting on a performance of Camelot and has commissioned us to make the boots for King Arthur and Lancelot. They sent photos of another performance and asked for the same styles. Because the pictures left a lot to be desired, we made the boots up in vinyl and sent them off. The costume mistress pinned, cut and made additions to get exactly what she has envisioned and we created them. The challenge was to get the slim look she wanted and have them easy to remove and put on in a hurry.
 Back view of Lancelot's boot  Cuff detail for Arthur's boot
Finished. delivered and road tested. Or actually dance tested. The flapper dance slipper that we had commissioned late summer was finished and delivered in time for all the holiday parties. The challenge was to re-create the period heel and mold it. It took numerous tried to get just the right angle that would mesh with the current last, but finally came out with a good fit and a sturdy enough resin to take the PSI required. We referenced a designer from the period and then found a nice little detail in a reference book and the combination look wonderful. As you can imagine we held our breaths until after the first party. They made it through that one and several more with ease. I’m hoping for a picture of the entire costume. The next one I’d love to try is Victorian, now that the bugs have been worked out of the system.
 Dance slipper from the 1920s  Side view of 1920s slipper  Toe detail with cutouts
The slippers that we’ve been working on for a historic dance enthusiast have come back from their last fitting. They really came out very close to the original. Liz has very bad bunions and a toe that never healed correctly after she broke it and has been wearing sandals for years. We customized the last to her needs and the shoes look dainty and very flattering. All that remains is to tweak the heel a little for style and she’ll be dancing at top form. I’ll let you be the judge.
 Illustration of a dance slipper fron the 1920s  Dance slipper in process The new slipper is navy blue and has all the cutouts in the toe and across the back with navy blue suede under the holes.
She’s so excited to have “real” shoes after all the years of sandals that we will be making her a selection of every day shoes as soon as she decides what she would like them to look like.
Another success story – a lady with a skin abnormality that made wearing any kind of shoe very painful. To try to deal with the problem she would just buy larger shoes, which only added blisters to the problem. We went the opposite way and made her correctly fitting shoes out of calf skin, very soft and form fitting. She just let me know that we’ll be making more for her. She walked all day at a Renn. Faire and her feet didn’t hurt. We sure like hearing those stories.
The Old Globe Theater commissioned footwear from us for their summer Shakespeare Festival. They had imported a director from the Royal Shakespeare Company in England with his costume mistress for the shows which gave us a bad case of nerves. It was really interesting and a little intimidating. to get to work with someone who has all the reference samples in her backyard. The new style that we had not done before was the classic two color English riding boot. In case you’re wondering – George III was one of the plays. She was looking for something authentic looking and we accidentally stumbled on to it. The boots were made without the hard toe box for the fittings, which turned out to be exactly the look she was after. The job was completed on time for dress rehearsals and left us all as little breathless. The costume mistress was thrilled – not bad for the colonies. Now it’s time to get back to normal – until the next time.
 18th Century English riding boot  18th Century English riding boot with oval toe
We’ve finished the clone trooper boots, sent them off and got them back. The customer has wanted them to make a larger statement visually to make his feet look more in proportion with the armor. To accomplish that we used a heavier leather, a round toe and added a quarter of an inch to the sole height. Right idea but it tipped over toward the clown shoe look when he put them on. Would have been perfect on a taller person, however …. We are going to go back to a regular last for him and reconstruct the boots. It’s one of those idea that looks good on paper but didn’t translate well.
 Boot for Clone Trooper  Toe detail for Clone Trooper boot The Florida squadron standardized the style for the boot and adds an ABS plastic band across the arch and a piece of ABS plastic “armor” on the top of the toe piece. They make and provide those pieces and we add the snaps so that they can be set in place. The two guys who make them will provide them to anyone wishing to use their design.
Last year I had a request for a 1920s style dance slipper. The woman didn’t realize that we do only custom work and that she could choose whatever she’d like to have us replicate. She said that she’d think about it and disappeared. Out of the blue, a picture of a designer shoe from 1925 showed up in my inbox with a note that this was her dream shoe. The slipper itself won’t be a problem. We can create it in the leather she’d like instead of a fabric and add some period details to dress it up. The heel however is going to be an issue. It’s the waisted heel style that is quite common in historic shoes and difficult to impossible to find in the right size, height and configuration. After her request last year, I explored the possibility of recreating the shape and making a mold to do the heels myself. I dug out the instruction book for mold making from a project 20 years ago (a valid reason for never throwing anything away) and located a source for small quantities of the resins. As soon the dancer decides on a heel height I can pull the right last and make a prototype. Being able to create exactly the right style heel for period shoes would open up a huge variety of styles that we can replicate with much better accuracy. I love it when a customer is up for helping us expand our horizons.
 Vionnet shoe from 1925
With the very specific specifications that the Tampa clone trooper group had settled on for their boots, we decided to make a vinyl mock-up for fit and to allow the the details to be drawn directly on the boots. That would insure that the finished boots would exactly meet their design specs. We also asked for a sample of the armor pieces that were going to be provided by their armor maker so that the attachment points would match the pieces. Since the boots had never actually been made we modified the design to include a zipper on the inside of the boots so it would tuck up under the leg armor. Everything is back from the fitting and we can start the actual boots.
 Mock-up with design details  Toe detail on mock-up  Existing boot for reference
Panatlone, one of the characters in Yale University’s spring production is middle eastern inspired. The shoe was to be a pointed slipper with a gentle upward swoop. Good in theory but not in execution. The result of adding the point to the front of a man’s shoe would have looked better coming out of a clown car than on stage. We had less that two days to redesign, produce the replacement, and get it from San Diego to Connecticut in time for the evening performance. Did it and they were very happy with the results. They will join the other six pairs we made in what I’m sure will be a successful show.
 Sketch for Panatlone  Turkish style slipper
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