Kirby Allison Carneras Interview

YouTube video by Kirby Allison of an interview with John Carnera and his son Dario

Notes

• started as 15-year-old polishing shoes
• started apprenticeship at 16, finished at 21
• first a cutter, then lastmaker, then closer, then maker
• had to choose
• chose lastmaking, designing, and cutting
• now at Cleverley as senior lastmaker
• worked with George Cleverley for 13 years
• made a pair of shoes for each of his sons, for their wedding days
• “terrified!”
• made for wife, as well
• never pushed any children toward the trades
• youngsters romanticize the trades
• apprentices: Can he understand shapes? Can he see it?
  • some have natural eye
  • some hear it once and understand
• starts making lasts by picturing the finished shoe
• “some people can just see it straightaway”
• hard work and common sense
• “you don’t have to be a genius”
• took son on first trip to America
• people would come from Los Angeles to New York to meet the rep
• George Cleverley
  • still making in his seventies
  • were 30-40 firms in the West End
  • added new dimension: lightweight shoe looks good and fits
  • not so “agricultural”
  • “Cleverley [chisel] toe”
  • “he had an amazing eye for style”
  • “great commercial brain”
  • great with clients
  • turned down very famous people he didn’t like
  • story: star having shirts made in Pell Mell, asked for referral to shoemaker, took him to introduce, “I’m too busy now, boy. Tell him to come back next year.”
  • “names didn’t mean anything to him”
  • liked polite and honest people
• …
• restarting Cleverley
  • New & Lingwood bought out by someone who didn’t understand bespoke, wanted to sell ready made cheaper
  • “pile ’em high and sell ’em cheap”
  • “George, Glasgow, and I decided this wasn’t for us”
  • right time to reopen
  • with their own money
  • 1992
  • “things will be tight for a while”
  • had part owned New & Lingwood, made money from the sale
  • had only died about 18 months before
  • lease had run out
  • George asked to see clients in New & Lingwood’s shop
  • started in Royal Arcade
  • had 200 prospective clients
  • one client: titled, looked in window, “Do you need any money?”, asked for a pair of black and a pair of brown
• …
• Russian Reindeer Leather
  • grew up hearing about it from seniors
  • secret had been lost
  • had first choice of skins
  • run out now
  • “made some great shoes from it”
  • smell overpowered the house
  • can smell when customer walks in with them on
  • wife asked Prince Charles: “Have you still got the Russian reindeer shoes?” 20 years after, “He made them!”