Central Europe or Eastern Europe in particular the former Eastern block, has a handful of bespoke shoe artisans unknown to us in the West. These artisans have kept the trade alive and survived the communist era, which is an achievement in itself. For today's blog, I praise the honourable, humble Shoe Masters from Poland who managed to keep this art alive even under hard conditions. These true artisans, loyal to the trade, can now offer bespoke shoes for a reasonable price and the pieces are elegant, classical, stylish and hand made.
Warsaw (Poland) has more bespoke shoe artisans than Copenhagen(Denmark), where the trade has slowly died out and almost vanished.
The Polish gents and shoe lovers in Poland must be very lucky to have at least three well reputed bespoke shoemakers, whom I am aware of at this time, that being Mr. Jan Wieladek, Mr. Tadeusz Januszkiewicz and Mr. Jan Kielman (he has a web site).
The first two gents are elderly gents (way over the 60's, I assume), and probably non English speaking too, but Jan Kielman does speak English. I would strongly recommend to pay these shoe masters a visit, if and when visiting Poland or the nearby countries.
Kindly look at these great pieces of art from the Polish shoe masters and judge for yourself.
Pictures sourced from, Macaroni Tomato blog, Style Forum and Jan Kielman
Warsaw (Poland) has more bespoke shoe artisans than Copenhagen(Denmark), where the trade has slowly died out and almost vanished.
The Polish gents and shoe lovers in Poland must be very lucky to have at least three well reputed bespoke shoemakers, whom I am aware of at this time, that being Mr. Jan Wieladek, Mr. Tadeusz Januszkiewicz and Mr. Jan Kielman (he has a web site).
The first two gents are elderly gents (way over the 60's, I assume), and probably non English speaking too, but Jan Kielman does speak English. I would strongly recommend to pay these shoe masters a visit, if and when visiting Poland or the nearby countries.
Kindly look at these great pieces of art from the Polish shoe masters and judge for yourself.
Shoes by Mr. Jan Wieladek
Customer feet measurements taken by the shoemaster
Some shoe pictures from the window display
Mr. Jan Wieladek at work
The client's feet after measurements taken
Mr. Tadeusz Januszkiewicz and his work
Mr. Tadeusz display from the shop
Last
A pair of oxford punched cap toe
A monk for a client
A suede full brogue
Jan Kielman
Jan Kielman shoes below
A reptile bootie
Two tone adelaide oxford
Two tone brogue golf shoe
A black and white full brogue oxford
I now have 3 pairs from Mr Januszkiewicz, a reddish brown calf Chukka, a dark brown suede full brogue oxford and a 5 tier whole-cut derby in royal blue suede. I can attest to the quality and fit, the lasts are some of the most elegant I've ever seen. I have two more pairs on the way- It's worth the trip to Warsaw just for him. For one pair of real Lobb bespoke you can buy 5 of his and the quality is comparable IMHO.
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