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
Not as interesting as the strider boot, but we just finished a pair of boots for a Gandolf costume.
The new challenge is a pair of Turkish style slippers for the Yale Drama Department’s current production. To achieve that soft little upturned toe we are using deer skin. It stretches so we can shorten the top and stretch the bottom piece of leather and get a natural curve. Dress rehearsals start Monday and thanks to overnight shipping, we’ll make it on stage at noon.
Boot for a Gandolf costume
It took me a whole day to get up the courage to mess them up. The experiments on the left overs looked ok but not great. I mixed up the gunk and started caking it on, then had to wait over night to see what I had. When I knock off the clumps and rubbed a cloth and brush over it to give it a more worn look, it wasn’t doing it. Not the right “dirty”. California dirt isn’t really good dirt – it too beige. Next step was potting soil and compost. That gave me good black dirt, the kind that one would find in a forest. It stuck to everything, laces, thread and leather. Knocked off the clumps and left a smeary mess in the same kind of places that the borrowed barn boots had. Not bad. They’ll still need some serious walking around to get the slouchy broken in look. That’s for the new owner.
Aged Strider Boots
Toe detail on Strider boot
Inside of Strider Boot
All the parts have finally arrived for the Aragorn character from The Lord Of The Rings and are assembled. The shoe laces were made from braided 1/8″ cotton rope found at Home Depot (boy, did they look at me funny when I told them what I needed) and the rope wraps are drapery and upholstery trim. The laces were tea stained to give them the right base color. The dirtying is in progress. I experimented with dirt from the yard (right color but wouldn’t stick), ashes from the grill (same issue), water and finally clay cat litter for the adhesion. Used borrowed barn boots for dirt placement and glopped it on and set them to dry. My test swatches looked great so now I just have to wait and then chip off the excess. A wire brush will finish of the faux wear patterns.
Strider boots with out the dirt
Lace detail on LOR boots
I picked up the completed strider boots yesterday and am quite pleased with the results. The solution to the cuff doesn’t look out of character with the original. I’m borrowing a pair of barn boots from a friend whose daughter rides to get the wear patterns to look authentic. The last unexpected problem is the side laces. The leather cording that we were intending to use is much too stiff. I’m hoping to find a heavy cotton string at the lumberyard that I can dye to look suitable.
Aragorn boots from Lord of the Rings movie
