Custom Renaissance Boots » shoes

Early 20th Century slipper

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:13:05 +0000

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

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Turkish slipper for Yale production

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:42:25 +0000

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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The Ivy League came calling

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:05:46 +0000

I had an interesting call from a nice young man in the Yale University theater department. He needed a source for period shoes for a production that they’ll be doing this spring. I explained that we are totally custom and that he’d need to provide me with actual foot outlines and measurements for us to use to match the wearer with a properly sized last to build the shoes on. Our preferred way to work is to send his actors the shoes with no finish insole and no sole to try on before we finished them for wearing. That would give them the opportunity to make us aware of any problems so they could be corrected before the finish work was done. Lead time would be three to four weeks depending on the styles he picked plus shipping time for the fitting and delivery. If he has a time crunch, we will do them without the fitting, which means that he has to be dead on with all the specs.

It will be fun to have another play to do. We haven’t done a theater production since the Lord Of The Rings musical in Toronto and enjoyed the challenge.

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Heavily slashed Renaissance slipper

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:29:33 +0000

Over the holiday’s I had a note asking if the purple and gold slipper would be appropriate for a man and could it be made with a change in colors. That’s our definition of custom. Everything can be changed. In this case, all he wanted to change was the color. Most of the slippers can and have been made for both men and woman. The slipper that inspired these was originally made of fabric and for a man. This slipper style was selected by the queen of the Northern California Renaissance Faire to complete her costume for the 2007 event and this is how we translated it for her.

Mid 1500s slashed slipper

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Success with Elizabethian Slippers

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:43:51 +0000

We’ve had a successful conclusion for the customer with the foot problems. The shoes fit like the glove leather they were constructed with and she’s very pleased. She tells me that the new gown should be ready soon and she’ll be ready to dance. The gold detail was made with pale gold metallic finished leather to coordinate with the gold details on the gown. The ankle straps have large grommets instead of eyelets to make it easy to use ribbons to match a variety of gowns. The toe detail was adapted from another Renaissance slipper for these tiny shoes.

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Tudor Lady’s Slippers Ready for Fitting

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:23:50 +0000

Chris approved the design and selected metallic gold with black for her colors. The slippers are constructed from two layers of kidskin to accommodate the extreme sensitivity of her skin. The are made without an insole or sole and sent to her for a fitting. Excess leather is left on the bottom to allow us to make them larger in any area that pinches. The Early Renaissance style will compliment her existing clothing and give her lots of flexibility for new gowns. the style can be used for mid 16th century styles as well as carry into the early 17th century. We should have the finished shoes ready for her in about two weeks.

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