A SCULPTOR OF SHOES

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1639, 9 May 1925, Page 3

A SCULPTOR OF SHOES

FRENCH BOOTMAKERS’ LIFE

STUDY.

In Paris there is a shoemaker who so thrugihly knws his metier and what is required to make a shoe fit perfectly, that customers pay him. something like £4OO for a concession, a guarantee to secure his master services to make their shoes. He has made his artistry a life study and hobby, which is individualised in the moulding shapes for the covering of their feet (writes “'Sylvia” in the Evening Standard). Tlhe first thing he does when you enter his saloon is to observe the way you place your feet while standing, sitting—then he -asks you to walk. Perhaps it happens to be in the morning you call —therefore, if you are correctly dressed—he .sees you in your tailor-made walking shoe attire. He proceeds to take your, measurements, then probably will ask you to return for a preliminary trial, fitting in the afternoon, when, of course, you will be wearing an afternoon dressy shoe, which will enlighten (him further, and he offers to come to your home or hotel in the evening, just for a few minutes before you go out to dinner. Why? To have an opportunity to study your walk in the evening slippers, your mannerisms, the way you move, place or fold your feet dressed in dinner — or ballroom—attire, just as he has done in the morning and afternoon for your other shoes.

With this gathered knowledge and his skill he is going to make for you the footwear of perfection—specially invented models of marvel, line, and craftsmanship that should go on your feet to give you most comfort and ease, a shoe which seems to belong to your “ own ” feet, with charcateristics imparted of your, own individuality, and so fet the feet express their particular language. Very different from a thing ready made, and not at all “ you’’—just a shape made for a thousand similar feet, and into which you really only grow by the time they are nearly out of shape.