Ivan Crivallero The Shoe Artist

I have been quite for some time, profound apologies for that. Lots of work and no play made me a dull boy. Yes, end of story. I came across Ivan Crivallero by mistake, I was looking for somethings else, when all of a sudden this champion, artist, bespoke shoe maker appears from no where.
Ivan, an Italian bespoke shoemaker, artist, has taken the shoe sole painting to dimensions I have never seen before. How often do we look at the sole? Unless someone is sitting down. I will start looking at the shoe soles from now on...thanks to Mr. Ivan.


Ivan at work

Balmoral brown oxford, with a medallion.....but the sole (soul) Dali himself.....that is 

the sole work.

The above shoe's design, from a birds view of the left shoe

A shoe from a perspective, hmmm.....

The artistic approach of making the gloss on a tassel loafer

Another sole (soul) in an artistic translation. Nice Tan loafer

A painting by itself of the sole, above
Below, another rendition of a sole, not to easily to spot, but does look good

 For a Gent who loves an Aston Martin, then your shoe soles should reflect that. Sounds like new money? Hmmm... not sure. Old money will never go to this length.

Art Deco styled soles

 Inspiration from Japan

 Tartan soled shoes

All photos sourced from the Internet....

Shoe Patina & Glacage

A reader had a comment on this blog regarding my writing on an old pair of shoes (40+ years) recycled by HRH Prince Charles, comment was "the shoes looked lacquered and HRH needs to retire them".  That sparked an investigation from my side to find out what is the difference between Patina and Glacage.


I found out that bespoke shoemakers from France & Italy (are the true masters of both arts), please see blog on Hom, who is a master of the trade. But besides him there are several other artisans who will do the job on your old shoes or new shoes. If it is an old pair it will be revived to its glory, if a new pair then it will be given that dandy look that will differentiate it from the masses.


When attending to shoe polishing, there are different terms used, waxing, glossing, patina etc and the results are amazing and different. It is an art in itself to get and achieve the desired results whether it is the old style spit shine (gloss), which most of us can do or try to. But when it comes to patina, it is a different ball game.


Patina will look like the below depicted pictures which is different from glossing or spit shine. I suppose there is more work in patina creations as it can involve from two up to multiple colours to reach the desired effect of art.

Patina art:

Glacage (Gloss) work of art: My understanding is that shoe lovers bring their shoes to these artists for a revival, put new life into the leather and bring the shoes to their glory again. Looking at the results, I have to admit, these shoes look great and worth the money spent on the revival, whether it is glossing or patina creating.


Now back to what sparked the investigation, the comment from the reader was "HRH shoes looked as if they were lacquered" and I have to strongly disagree. Why would HRH lacquer a John Lobb bespoke shoe? Ah never mind, just my humble opinion.

Boots revival before and after revival (Gloss)

Shoe before revival and after 

Boot before patina and after 

Photos sourced from Paulus Bolten and Pierre Paul of Talon rouge