The desire for an investment shoe goes beyond the brogue. As Rae Jones, shoe designer and footwear editor at trend forecasting agency WGSN, says, “Accessible designer knock-offs and cheaply-manufactured shoes from the Far East are readily available on the high street, but often don’t offer much value, especially during a recession. Women are starting to search for a longer-lasting shoe: one that will wear better but still retain its looks. The bespoke shoe is, apparently, not just for guys any more.
Last year, for example, Terry de Havilland, inventor of the platform sole, launched a custom shoe business for women (prices start at £600), with a wide selection of shapes, leathers and heels (including a cloud-scraping seven-incher). “Women want to buy into the difference bespoke brings,” says De Havilland.
T&F Slack, a shoemaker established in the 1970s, launched its own custom-made shoe service this summer (prices start at £235), and Alessandro Oteri, who launched his shoe brand three years ago, says bespoke now accounts for 30 per cent of turnover – partly, he believes, because the rising price of clothing has placed a much greater emphasis on shoes and accessories as part of many women’s budgets. As a result, he says, “women are more ready than ever to move up to the next level of shoes.”
According to bespoke shoemaker Caroline Groves, there has been a reappraisal of the cost of bespoke shoes in light of the rising prices of designer ready-to-wear shoes. “Women with financial wherewithal have had all the designer shoe names over the years but [they] now want to be more involved in the shoemaking process,” says Groves, who is expanding her operation later this year. “And if you’re used to paying £600 for a designer shoe, the extra for a bespoke shoe does not seem so enormous.” Indeed, many of her regular clients may buy up to nine pairs a year, with one buying more than 25.
Not all options are bank-breaking. Groves’ prices start around £1,600 for a fully hand-crafted shoe but mechanisation of some parts of the shoemaking process allows T&F Slack, for instance, to match designer prices, while De Havilland, by making shoes entirely in his own workshops, can do the same. A one-spot operation also allows De Havilland to counter another objection to bespoke: the waiting time. While Groves can turn a bespoke pair around in eight weeks or so, Slack and De Havilland can deliver a customer’s order in under a month – fast, given the greater complexity of parts and engineering in a woman’s shoe compared with a man’s, and all the possible permutations of style.
“Custom or bespoke allows women to find the shoe they want even if it’s against trend: you want a platform, you have a platform,” says T&F Slack’s Tim Slack. “Women are increasingly self-confident about what they want.”
“Women are bored of labels now,” agrees shoe designer Anita Moser, who plans to launch her own bespoke service. “Bespoke will only get bigger.”
It may even get a new name. “The word bespoke seems a particularly male one,” says Georgina Goodman, of the eponymous brand, who employs a bespoke shoemaker to meet demand. “A better way to think of it is as ‘footwear couture.’ ”
..........................
Details
www.alessandrooteri.com
www.anitamoser.ch
www.carolinegroves.co.uk
www.georginagoodman.com
www.raejones.co.uk
www.tandfslackshoesmakers.com
www.tdhcouture.com
