Every time I do a review of bespoke shoes, the question comes up as to whether they're worth the money. Whether bespoke shoes in general can really be worth it, given the little issues I often report.  My short answer is that, in my experience, they...

As the last post on building a wardrobe - focused on Neapolitan tailoring - proved popular, I thought I'd do a second looking at shoes. But rather than look at my whole shoe collection, which numbers more than 40 pairs and would take a long time to...

Bespoke shoes are a luxury for me, rather than the norm.  Unlike bespoke tailoring - which I will always buy over RTW as long as I can afford to - I’m quite happy with a shoe wardrobe which is mostly ready-made.  This can put more pressure on bes...

As mentioned in my recent article on Yohei Fukuda, I ordered a pair of bespoke shoes from him last year, when I was in Tokyo.  However, I opted for bespoke without a fitting.  Why? Well, at the moment I seem to be getting to Tokyo every three years...

When I cover an artisan where I’m genuinely interested in the product - its quality, design and often heritage or story, I have something made. I then tend to cover the maker in one, initial post that explains their product and background; and a s...

   A few weeks ago I received my final pair of Foster & Son bespoke shoes. The process has, unfortunately, been both good and bad.  First, the good. The fitting I had with John Spencer - Foster’s lastmaker - was impressive. The fit around ...

What shoes do we still find ourselves wearing after 10 years, and why?  I find this is mostly about making sensible, functional choices; then a little bit about quality and fit; and almost nothing to do with bevelled waists or stitches per inch.  W...

Yohei Fukuda is one of the finest shoemakers in the world. And given his longevity - he set up on his own 12 years ago - he’s been at the forefront of Japan emerging as the primary world force in bespoke.  But like many Japanese, it's taken him a ...

Almost a year ago, back in January, I began the process of making a pair of bespoke shoes with a new outfit in Romania, Petru & Claymoor.  Shoe fans might have seen some coverage of the brand over the intervening year. It was set up by Mircea Ci...

In the first part of this series, I described the measuring process for having a first pair of bespoke shoes made at GJ Cleverley. The second step, though of course it takes place in the same session, is deciding which material and model of shoe you ...

So, my friend Tommaso Capozzoli has this pair of shoes. They’re bespoke, by Stefano Bemer, and made in their replica Russian-reindeer leather. They seem to go with everything he wears, from grey flannel to cream linen, and have real character with...

While in Florence last month, we took the opportunity to film some of the practical videos we've produced in the last year, with artisans based in the city. This is the first, with Stefano Bemer, talking about buying a first pair of bespoke shoes:...

Well, I was wrong. Six months ago I made the point, following the collection of my first pair of shoes from Cleverley, that the benefits of bespoke shoes were more about comfort than aesthetics; in contrast with a bespoke suit, where the benefits are...

 After two and a half years I finally received my first Stefano Bemer bespoke shoes last month. And what beauties they are. I was initially measured by Stefano, who also oversaw the creation of my last. But it wasn't until earlier this year that I ...

  Following a few requests for links to all the posts in the Cleverley bespoke series, here they are listed below. I also thought readers would like to hear George Glasgow's recommendations on wearing bespoke shoes for the first time. He suggested...

  In Autumn last year, John from J Adler Shoes asked if I would review his bespoke shoes in return for a review. I don’t normally take up such offers, particularly for lower-end shoes such as these, but I was interested in Adler's unusual fit pr...

Masaru Okuyama - the Japan-trained but Hong Kong-based shoemaker - made me this pair of shoes over the past 10 months.  Their relevance is twofold. As a review of Masaru and his work, of course, but also as an experience of Japanese shoemaking, as t...

Seiji McCarthy is someone I've wanted to cover on PS ever since we hung out in Tokyo some six years ago. But with no prospect of travelling to Japan soon, I turned to local writer and friend Christopher Berry to visit Seiji and report - on Seiji's Am...

 I do like it when readers suggest posts. You feel you’re fulfilling a need. Two weeks ago, on Five Tips on Bespoke Suits, a reader requested a similar post on bespoke shoes, so here it is.1 Be conservativeI know it’s the same as the first suits...

“The time has come, the walrus said,To talk of many things.Of shoes and ships and sealing wax,Of cabbages and kings.” No plans yet to write about cabbages. But it is certainly time to talk about bespoke shoes. I set an appointment last week to g...

Bocache & Salvucci was a bit of a surprise when I visited last month.  I’d come across the shoemaker at Jean-Manuel Moreau, in Paris, and had assumed that in Rome I would find a small (because relatively unknown) bespoke craftsman.  What I ac...

 This is Jon Spencer, last maker at Foster & Son, making up the last for my first pair of bespoke shoes from the team. The black, Oxford whole-cuts will have the classic ‘West End’ Foster’s toe shape, slightly elongated and chiseled at th...

Nicholas Templeman is a bespoke shoemaker, an ex-John Lobb lastmaker who now works out of his home in North London. We've been working on a pair of derby shoes for the past year, and they're near completion. So I thought it would be good time to writ...

 After the bespoke shoes symposium, it was off to the party at Villa Cora, just outside Florence. Sports cars were on hand to take participants from the Bemer workshop, above. (Though they got a little held up by Florentine traffic and people wanti...

Finally, the last stage of my George Cleverley shoes. This is the finishing, which involves waxing the edges, sealing the sole and polishing the upper. The edges of the sole are stained in a similar colour to the upper – though perhaps a few shades...