Ed Hayes special

[Tony]

I have just posted some pictures of a pair of wholecut oxford shoes that i have made for Mr Hayes.
Please take some time to have a look, they have a great individual style and have a very interesting use of materials. The upper leather is an antiqued black with a pinkish alligator lining and seatsock, the eyelets are done in alternate widths from top to bottom, the perforation design is asymmetric and blends into the required initials, the tongue is raised and squared off and the sole is finished with a narrow bevelled fiddle waist.

Please excuse the pictures although they are clear they do not do the shoes justice because of the bad lighting.

Kind regards

Tony

[edhayes]

I am trying to get up the courage to wear them-I have them on a table where I can admire them without getting them dirty.

[BP45]

They are gorgeous. Tony, one question: you said that the shoes were antiqued black. On my screen, they appear to be a beautiful, dark antiqued brown. Why is it called antiqued black? If I wanted shoes in that color, I would request antiqued black (actually, I'd probably refer to it as "the color Ed Hayes asked for")?

[le.gentleman]

congratulations Ed & Tony!!! They are more than an outstanding artwork!

[jcusey]

Those certainly are stunning shoes. I love that someone has finally done something interesting with black!

I'm very curious about the extended tongue: I would have thought that it would cut into the front of your ankle while walking. I take it that that's not the case?

[Tony]

Hi John, the lining material used on this tongue is not as ridged as on a RTW shoe so it shouldn't cut into the foot, the height is also kept realistic so it shouldn't be far enough up the foot to cause a problem, If the tongue did happen to become a problem it could quite easily be taken out and shortened slightly.

Hi BP-45, The colour is black but can sometimes appear brown in certain lights, as soon as you take the depth away from black your eyes can play tricks on you and the shoes can appear to be brown,grey even blue, in this case i think it would be the bad photography.

Kind regards

Tony

[Mark Seitelman]

A M A Z I N G !

[mathew]

Beautiful shoes! I also really like the diamond tip derby shoes in the Photojournal.

[edhayes]

and they're comfortable, the pink crocodile lining is a good finishing touch.
I wore them to court when I appeared on behalf of a man accused of contract killings for the mob-

[bengal-stripe]

the pink crocodile lining....to court... contract killings for the mob

In this particular case, they should have been worn inside out.

[Guest]

I know this is tardy, but I was admiring these shoes and I have a few questions: were these special order shoes or bespoke? What model are these in the RTW (if they exist). Are there any RTW shoes available in this wonderful color?

[Tony]

Hi David

Unfortunately everything about this style is bespoke, the leather,style,last etc....
Maybe the closest ready made style would be Newbury on the 888 last.

Kind regards

Tony

[le.gentleman]

Hi BP-45, The colour is black but can sometimes appear brown in certain lights, as soon as you take the depth away from black your eyes can play tricks on you and the shoes can appear to be brown,grey even blue, in this case i think it would be the bad photography.


Kind regards

Tony

Tony,

I assume that you antiqued the leather by polishing it, correct?! Which colours did you use for polishing?

Thank you in advance

[Tony]

This colour is quite complicated to produce, i first used some spirit to take the die out of the leather, the under colour is mostly white, i applied the spirit in almost a rag rolled fashion, not leaving the spirit on too long as it may damage the leather. I then use a black shoe cream to fill all the perforation holes and white edges, then again i use the spirit to take of all the cream, this time it leaves a slightly more extreme antique effect, to finish off, the shoes are spit and polished for a good few hours with a neutral polish, i use neutral as black can make the whole finish look like simple black calf.

I used no brown, if you see a brown tint in the leather it would be the tannage coming out in the lighter area's of which i used spirit.

Tony

[le.gentleman]

Thanks Tony,

Spirit - I have never heard that before. Maybe, I will give it a try on an old pair of shoes. Ecspecially, the experimentation of the influence of time, amount ... of spirit on the leather seems to be important.

kind regards,

Raphael