YouTube video by Kirby Allison interviewing Nicholas Templeman
Notes
- footage of using stock knife
- Kirby: one of first independents in recent trend, taking to larger audience
- studied fine art at university
- saw display of tools in a shoe shop window, implied that shoes could be made by hand
- Lobb were looking for an apprentice lastmaker
- considered being a tailor before university
- big differences between crafts as fantasized versus practiced
- huge drain on time to train someone
- time teaching is time not spent working
- some people do 3 or 4 years learning, then give up
- worked for Lobb seven years
- John Hunter Lobb was there at the time; Jonathan and William were there; Nicholas wasn’t there yet
- went to Lobb, thought it was just a tour, “did you bring your CV?”
- a month’s trial
- sweeping up
- skiving leather
- apprenticed to Jonathan Lobb
- “How’s it gone?” “How’s what gone?” “Yeah, you’re fine.”
- Kirby: Lobb has taught more people lastmaking than anywhere else
- great learning environment
- have closers, makers, lastmakers in the same building
- can watch people, ask questions, just don’t bother because self-employed
- had seven other lastmakers there
- everyone has their own taste
- knew it was what he wanted to do from the first
- was his dream job
- fine art study didn’t inform shoemaking directly
- “see what you want to make before you’ve made it”
- “it’s entirely guesswork, lastmaking”
- 3D object from 2D data
- “very limited data”
- “the more limited, the better in some ways”
- too many measurements would impede
- “quite holistic”
- foot only half of it
- different ideas of fit
- “Nothing’s right. Nothing’s wrong.”
- throw a fit at them and see if they react
- “you’ve gotta be a good poker player to be a good lastmaker”
- analogy to handwriting
- you don’t decide what it is
- can’t forge a signature
- 90% is how he does it, what he think looks good
- can recognize lastmakers’ work by eye
- can tell from six feet away
- lastmaking more art than science
- more rules in pattern making and closing
- sometimes can make a last in an afternoon and it’s just right
- sometimes the measurements are on, but it’s just not right, have to put it down and walk away
- 3D scanners?
- wouldn’t want a tailor to scan your body
- feet don’t stay still
- biomechanically complicated
- “You don’t make a last based on the foot. You’re making a last to make a pair of shoes that the foot’s going to be comfortable in.”
- comfort versus aesthetic priority
- Kirby: Baron de Redé had beautifully skinny shoes he could barely walk in
- “nothing wrong with that”
- striking out on own
- apprenticed two years
- lastmaker and fitter after
- ceiling after the apprenticeship
- “I didn’t think I could last another thirty forty years doing that.”
- wanted more involvement, to make more decisions
- “be a person in a shop”
- “they don’t choose to see me”
- “not an ego thing”
- “someone’s chosen you”
- “who’s working that day?”
- had second daughter
- “If I don’t leave now, the kid’s going to get bigger.”
- “If I don’t leave now, it’s never going to happen.”
- saw rise of social media, Styleforum
- lots of Japanese makers on Instagram
- ==“they were really the first to be independent, over there, because they had no choice, the way the industry is set up over there”
- inspirations: Anthony Delos
- was at Lobb
- started own business
- now at Belutti
- clear signature style
- “that’s what I want”
- didn’t want to be the next big West End shop
- iterative process
- should be happy with the first pair
- if not, adjust the first pair
- no “order another pair and we’ll see if we get it better next time”
- alterations
- “as much learning what you want and need”
- some do just order one pair
- but ideally, build a relationship with client
- the process gets smoother
- taking photos, ideas from clients
- blessed with wide variety of orders
- not just all black Oxfords
- posts photos of shoes as they go out on Instagram
- all customer shoes there
- doesn’t have many sample shoes
- with social media, don’t have to travel with so many samples
- can show people leathers, designs, etc. among Instagram photos
- making quality
- how well skived the stiffeners are
- can see lines?
- how nice is the fudging?
-
stitch density: most shoes around 12 SPI
- too dense, have to make the thread finer
- 4 would be agricultural
- 16 looks good, but not practical, “something to show you can do it”
- seat uniform? not wavy
- waist curve
- length of heel has to look right
- nobody uses formulas, just do it by eye
- waists
- not a huge fan of fiddleback waists
- from the bottom look neat, from the side looks thick
- super narrow waists aren’t West End style
- “not the sample shoes I grew up looking at”
- samples on narrow lasts
- square waist a country shoe
- every shop in the West End had a stamp, because all using the same pool of outworkers
- would stamp sole and heel leather
- make sure they’d used your leather, not some rubbish
- didn’t sell the Baker’s for beer money
- just a tradition to stamp it now
- “handmade” and “bespoke” confusion
- true bespoke: lasts from scratch for you
- not modified stock last
- not outsourced
- made by the person dealing with your order
- can make a handmade shoe to the same standard on a factory last, but not bespoke
- “can tell a bespoke last”
- can see a pair of shoes on the street and tell
- “It’s hard to find good pigskin.”
- bought a couple good skins just to have them
- once started really doing chiseled toes, influenced by Japanese social media, had some clients a little shocked, had to adjust
- “I like to think I don’t have a house style.”
- Bruce Lee: “the best style is no style”
- generally prefers naturally finished soles for brown shoes, black for black shoes
- doesn’t recommend a row of nails
- wear down quickly
- quite slipperly
- quarter rubber instead
- all patent leather pretty much the same these days
- used to be calf
- used to half to chalk to get all the oil out
- now it’s laminated cow sides
- “fine for the job”
- some makers more suited to what a client wants
- ideal: relationship where you can just talk to clients
- become social relationships, may not even talk about shoes
- he knows his tailors, speaks to them all the time, have dinners and drinks
- larger than life personality: ended up making huge shoes