The London Lounge

Just wanted to share with you the work of Mischa Bergshoeff ( www.ilmaestro.nl ) from Gouda, The Netherlands. He recently won the award for best bespoke shoemaker in the Benelux.

His prices start at about 1200E, which is rather cheap considering the amount of work and craftsmanship contained in a pair of these shoes. All work is done (by hand) by himself. Someday I hope to be one of his customers.

I hope you enjoy the pictures!

First I want to start with pictures of a pair of shoes he won this award with:








And some pictures of his workshop and himself in action:

go to his site and check out his special models-I'd like to meet the girls who wear them, I tell you!

Those prize-winning shoes aren’t very Dutch, are they?

I have no idea how Dutch shoes ought to look like, but I would have thought less flamboyant, somewhat more austere, more “protestant”. (Oops, did someone say “dour”?)

I suppose “Il Maestro” isn’t a Dutch mode of address either.

bengal-stripe wrote:I have no idea how Dutch shoes ought to look like, but I would have thought less flamboyant, somewhat more austere, more “protestant”. (Oops, did someone say “dour”?)

Bengal-stripe,

I too have no idea how a 'Dutch' shoe would look, other than perhaps the wooden shoes my country is famous for... . Still, to give you some idea about Dutch shoemaking, some websites:

Van Bommel Shoes;
Van Lier Shoes; or
Greve schoes.



Mark

Is the seam on the vamp of the prize winning shoes the only place where the leather is joined (i.e., no seam near the heel)? If so, that is quite an impressive technical feat. I imagine that would be a very difficult pattern to draft, cut and shape.

Mark
I suppose, what I was trying to say, the prize-winning shoes look a bit the love child of Mme Berluti and Signor Lattanzi.

Dopey
I believe the stitching across the vamp is simply decorative and is not a seam joining two pieces. If you look carefully at the first and fourth picture, you see at the heel something flaring out (like a dog’s ear). Although in this case, I think it is a strip covering the back seam and flaring out towards the top. In my opinion it’s a wholecut with a decorative row of stitching across the vamp. (But I can be wrong.)

bengal-stripe wrote: Dopey
I believe the stitching across the vamp is simply decorative and is not a seam joining two pieces. If you look carefully at the first and fourth picture, you see at the heel something flaring out (like a dog’s ear). Although in this case, I think it is a strip covering the back seam and flaring out towards the top. In my opinion it’s a wholecut with a decorative row of stitching across the vamp. (But I can be wrong.)

I see what you are referring to and think you are correct.

Nexus,

Thanks for the info, excellent photo's. I'll be sure to check out the web-site.

Personally, I don't find his designs particularly enticing.

Neither do I, Jan. But they must appeal to someone, other than the judges who acclaimed him as the best shoemaker in the BeNeLux!

RWS wrote:Neither do I, Jan. But they must appeal to someone, other than the judges who acclaimed him as the best shoemaker in the BeNeLux!

Well Rob, when I speak to shoe repair people here, they all know who he is and like what they see... of course, until I steer them to Suzuki's website.....