Saskia Wittmer bespoke shoes - Florence

The men's bespoke shoe industry (artisanship) is mostly dominated by men, all most in all continents (Europe, The Americas, The United Kingdom and Japan). However that does not mean and say that there are no women in this industry. Most famous and known is Madame Olga Berluti from Berluti, then we have Madame Deborah Carré from the duo CarreDucker based in England (the other member being James Ducker), Sweden 
has two ladies (Carina & Asa) in the shoemaking field. WS Foster & Son has currently Emma and Emiko, the latter from Japan, maybe in the near future both will venture into their own brand of bespoke shoemaking. 

When thinking of Florence in regards to bespoke shoemaking, names like Hidetaka Fukaja, late Stefano Bemer, Antonio Mannina and Roberto Ugolini comes to mind, now add Madame Saskia to the list. Madame Saskia Wittmer,  a Berlin born, moved to Florence and a student of late Stefano Bemer, runs the Saskia house in Florence (Italy).

Madame Saskia window and logo display in Florence (Italy)

A beautiful rendition of a co-respondent full brogue in brown and white

A full brogue Oxford in antiques polishing

A quarter brogue Oxford with a cap toe medallion

A classical black Oxford with a punched cap toe

A strapped loafer in exotic hide and the apron in white linen

Display 

A whole cut Oxford in black calf hide 

A Balmoral wing tip Oxford in calf and suede

Photos sourced from MerciMeLord, News about shoes and Necessities

Koji Suzuki (Spigola) Lazy man's shoe rendition

For closing the day, I have again sampled a side gusset punched cap toe Oxford with "faux laces" - "Lazy Man's shoe" as renditioned by Japanese Master Koji Suzuki. Need not say that Master Suzuki is a master of making the most amazing renditions of shoes, simple, elegant and classic, yet paying much attention to the tiny details and with great respect to the shoemaking art. 
Now the below "Lazy Man's shoe" because of the side gussets and the false laces, is a classical punched cap toe with a chisel square, the colour an espresso brown (nothing special about that), but the overall look and feel of this shoe makes it distinctive and unique, only the connoisseurs and real shoe lovers will and can appreciate this rendition. Naturally bespoke, where less is more. Very nice, indeed.

Master Koji Suzuki's rendition of a "Lazy Man's" shoe, with a punched cap toe and side gussets paired with faux laces.

Photos sourced from The Shoe Realist

Crockett & Jones - The Clifford Full brogue (patina)

I have been keeping an eye on the Crockett and Jones, Clifford full brogue oxford in tan colour for years. Living in the Nordic where sunshine is available for about three to four months, I did not know what to do do with a tan coloured shoe.  In the mean time bought a full brogue on the 337 last from W. S Foster in antique chestnut, a shoe that makes people look twice due to the shine.

Last week I took four pair of shoes to my local cobbler, who sells mainly Crockett & Jones, when viewing my shoes he asked if I brought them in to show off (the shine, gloss). Our conversation ended up with me borrowing a pair of Crockett & Jones, Clifford hand-grade (full brogues) in tan, to take home and play with, meaning making a "patina". 

I realised when working on the colour & patina, that if I were to bespeak a pair of Summer shoes for the Nordic, would rather go for tan colour and then work on that to get the correct colour/patina that will compliment the Summer and SPring of the Nordic. Note that it was the first time I tried this very formidable and demanding art of patina, and during the process I realised how much it craves from one. My respect to all the Masters of patina around the world.

Below my (left) W.S. Forster, full brogue oxford (Thornham), antique chestnut, built on the 337 Last. On the right also a W. S. Foster punched cap toe (Westbury), built on 337 last, antique chestnut. Now for those of you who do not know the Crockett & Jones handgrade models the (The Clifford) is the equivalence of W. S. Forster Ready To Wear (Thornham) and the Crockett & Jones, handgrade Belgrave model equavalence to W. S. Foster, Westbury. In short, the shoes are the same(?) but from different shoe makers.

Below lots of black polish applied, outcome not so great.

 Close up on the cap toe of the W. S. Foster, Thornham, full brogue.

Westbury(below) after undergoing a polish after polish & getting the job done right, can be seen it's lighter than above. The colour is almost correct in my humble opinion.

Mirror polishing, can you see me taking pictures on the below??

Above shoes have went through a number of different stages of shinning, and finally I did get the right shoe colouring, which can be seen here on the W. S. Forster (Westbury). The same has been achieved on the Thornham.

Now comes the Clifford, Hangrade from Crockett & Jones in the original colour tan, and me working it out to get the colour that fits the Nordic, Summer climate and Sun and atmosphere....... the outcome can be seen below in different stages.

After a few polishing, shoe on the left, was kept with original colouring (Tan). Shoe on the right, did get a bit of black, burgundy and something else.

Worked on it some days and I got this:

May look identical, but it's not, worked on both shoes, to bring the medallion, stitching, brogeuing etc out. End of the day decided that shoe on the right needed bit of colour and end result is the below before handing over to Rolf Hansson Skomakari for a Master review.

Well, will be presenting these to Michael, Bjorn (Rolf's sons) on the 05 May 2012, not sure Big Kahuna (Rolf their father) will be there, so I am a bit itchy. So here you have my humble rendition of "Tan Shoes for the Nordic".

Will present the results tomorrow after audtiition.....Keep fingers .....

Thanks to the Gents and shoe lovers at Rolf Hansson Skomakari (Malmoe, Sweden) for borrowing the shoes (Crockett and Jones, Clifford (Handgrade) in tan out to me a Shoe Scoundrel, to mess up with.

All pictures are sourced from me.