video interview of Simon Bolzoni
Notes
- when started out, only old books to read
- apprenticed under Terry Moore at Foster’s
- apprenticeship: master makes one last, you copy it to make its fellow
- lastmakers
- meets the client
- measures
- reinterpret measurements
- sculpting
- customer service
- patternmaking: second most important
- clicking
- closing
- shoemaker
- lasting
- ties to insole
- bottoming after the fitting done
- very different skills, different materials
- better when someone focuses on one
- founding Canons
- started with just an apprentice
- had a retail background
- got involved with ready-to-wear as well as bespoke
- shoes were having made in Northampton
- enjoyed the shop floor
- became manager of the store, then managing director
- opened a factory in Northampton
- lasts for ready to wear
- ended up buying Foster’s business
- changed the name
- stopped making ready-to-wear
- clean break in history
- people confused that he was part of the Foster family
- now in Islington
- to have a bigger workshop, about 3-4 times bigger
- goals now
- very true to West End
- Foster’s style was understated, less pedestrian, not too sporty, mainly from Terry Moore, some he brought from Peal
- has the old lasts in archive
- most archive lasts are for customers, need to service
- have 3,000 in a storage unit
- take inspiration from them
- e.g. how to problem-solve a foot type
- styles do change, despite the slower heritage pace
- e.g. going away from sharp chisel toes now, more almond toes
- ready to wear and bespoke lasts
- as one of many lastmakers, see fewer people
- with ready to wear, see more feet
- ready to wear as “fixed” lasts
- important experience
- Canons shoes today
- understated
- “not trying to scream and shout”
- “the best version we can for them”
- not one style everyone wants from them
- taught to make toe sharp, then allow it to be softened
- “how stone gets softened by water over time”
- Terry: no straight lines in nature
- flow from heel to toe and back
- working around, not on heel or toe separately
- not just getting a fit and putting a toe on the end
- volume
- can make 100 pairs a year
- team about a dozen people
- might bring on a few more when find them
- won’t make more until they find the people
- trunk shows, London showroom
- showroom
- on German street, had shop upstairs, but everyone loved going there
- more creative designing upstairs
- “fill the space with the workshop”
- walls of lasts
- lastmaking equipment right in the front, because of the good light there
- hang the leathers rather than roll them
- color coded
- big work bench in the middle where can throw hides
- almost make cases
- samples
- bring as many as they can on a trap, usually between 20 and thirty
- bestseller:
- brown derby with front blind seam
- Norwegian storm welt
- midsole
- sample from the 1960s
- aged by the sun
- shoe made for Oscar Peterson, pianist
- thinner soles to feel pedals
- “front-spring monk”
- “spring” denoting elastic, “front sprung”
- same family as monk strap
- “monks are in the derby family”
-
There’s only really a couple styles of shoes. There’s Oxfords…and then there’s Derbies…and then there’s loafers. And, so, monks are in the Derby family. Side-elastics would be in the Oxford family. And then loafers are on their own.
- “side-spring shoes”
- new blucher
- “05 last”
- round toe
- “05” comes old address, 5 Duke of York Street
- storm welted
- “overlaid facing” rather than blind seam
- “fresher look”
- do leather colors themselves