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OLD RECORDING: In the fashionable
shopping district

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near St James's Palace stands one

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of London's most exclusive shoe
shops.

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Mr Eric Lobb supplies boots and
shoes to many famous people.

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His grandfather founded the business
in the gold rush days,

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by making miners' boots with a

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special heel that concealed the
gold.

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Autograph hunters would be
interested in this book.

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Here are the pencilled outlines of
Gordon Harker's feet.

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And on the other pages are many more
footprints of the famous.

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See for yourself some of the famous

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people whose feet have been carved
in wood by the last-maker.

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I think if the original John Lobb
were to walk in today,

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he would be very at home with what's
going on here.

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Many things have changed,

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but when it comes to having a

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conversation with him about
shoemaking,

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I think we would find a lot in
common.

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And I would certainly have a lot to
learn from him.

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HE LAUGHS

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Jonathan is the fifth generation of
Lobbs to follow in the family

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footsteps, and splits his day
between workbench and desk.

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He starts each morning crafting
wooden lasts.

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The precise sculptures of the
customer's feet,

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which a bespoke shoe is built on.

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I need a measurement that says
9 5/8ths,

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and at the moment I've got
just over 9 3/4.

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Even just removing 1/8th of an
inch can involve taking off quite a

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lot of the actual volume of the
last.

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You've got to take it off in the
right place.

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I'm working to the principle
that's grown up over a

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period of hundreds of years,

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with conditions that have been
tried and tested.

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If you do something outside those
parameters,

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you simply end up having a shoe that
doesn't fit properly.

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Jonathan is just one of a team of
seven last-makers,

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including some of the longest
serving staff members,

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Michael and Neil.

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I pretty much wanted to be a
carpenter.

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That's what my mind-set was.

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Mr Lobb suggested I do last-making
if I was interested in wood

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and carpentry. It was a part of the
trade I didn't even know existed.

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I was smitten by it. I didn't think
I'd be here for more than a year or

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two. It's been 34 years now.
So, that was a shock to the system.

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I started off at a shoemaking
college in Hackney,

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and I was there for three years.

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Then I just walked into the store,
asked for a job, saw John Lobb

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and I started about a month later.

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Mike and I have seen more of each
other over the years

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than we have of
our partners, which is a bit scary.

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But we come in here every day,

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we sit on the same stools. We go
through the same actions,

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the same motions. But
everything is very different.

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Although it looks the same,
but what's going on in our head and

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what we're creating is different
every day.

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It's not an exact science, it's a
craft.

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We've all got our own individual
style.

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We can walk down into the last
racks,

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and there's over 15,000 lasts down
there.

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And I can pick out Michael's,
and he can pick out mine because we

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all know our individual style of
last-making.

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It's always nice to get a
difficult foot.

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When you get a difficult foot it's a
joy,

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because you're using all your
skills.

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So, it's not all repetition.

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We also get customers bringing in

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their sons to buy their first pair
of shoes for them.

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And the greatest one
I heard was a customer said to his

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son, "Son, welcome to your most
expensive hobby ever."

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We're not far off now.

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It's just nice being around quality
shoes.

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I haven't bought a pair of shoes in
the shop...

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..maybe in 30 years now.

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You wear shoes here.

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And we all went out one time to
watch a game of football

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and at half-time we were all playing
football in our Lobb shoes.

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Outrageous. It's just a pair of
shoes for us now.

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When you're doing something which is
inherently peaceful,

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then your mind thinks about problems
that you're trying to resolve and

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what happens when you take away all

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the distractions and things come
into mind.

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Put yourself in a quiet room and
just see what happens.

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See what pops into your head.

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From making the last, to final
polish,

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a pair of bespoke shoes passes
through the hands of seven skilled

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artisans. Each focusing on just one
part of the process.

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And a meticulous process demands a
hefty price tag.

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Over £4,000 for a pair of leather
Oxfords.

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Small change, perhaps, for past
customers like Aristotle Onassis,

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Frank Sinatra or Prince Charles and
the Duke of Edinburgh,

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who granted John Lobb their
royal warrant

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and remain regular customers.

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John Hunter Lobb has been fitting
famous feet since the 1950s,

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and is now the head of the company.

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The measurements we take from a
customer's feet are fairly simple.

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You take an outline, a pencilled
outline,

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and then three measurements around
it.

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Basically, that's all. You make note

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of any peculiarities, lumps or
bumps,

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but the measurements are really
quite simple.

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Well, we've taken the measurements.

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They come to the case here and look

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around for what they would like us
to make. And it can be anything.

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They can take a bit of this and a

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bit of that and we put them
together.

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It always takes us rather a long
time to make a pair of shoes.

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The actual work involved itself
is slow

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and you can't hurry it because
handwork can't be hurried.

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Six months or so for a first pair.

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We've got to make the lasts, and
then make the uppers,

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and then put the soles on.

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And since we've got a fair amount of
work to do,

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it all takes a long time.

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Each artisan settles into a
different rhythm and pace.

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Making and attaching the sole may
take days.

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While drawing the pattern and
tailoring it

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to the customer's last can take
a couple of hours.

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OLD RECORDING: The next operation is
performed by the clicker,

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as they call it in the business.
Cutter-outter, to you.

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He's handled a good many miles of
leather in his life,

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and can tell at a glance the age and
condition

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of the animal that it came from.

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The clicker's job is to cut out the
leather from

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patterns made from the last.
This is the first rough cutting,

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and he leaves plenty of margin for
working.

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So, once I've finished clicking the
uppers then they are tied together,

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as I'm doing now.

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And they are sent to one of the
closers and they do the

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next part of the process which, of
course, is to then close the uppers,

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stitch the uppers together.

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Morning.

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Historian and author Brian Dobbs has
been spending one morning a week in

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Lobb's for the past 40 years.

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Many years ago, I wrote the history
of the firm.

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I became really intrigued by the
fact that they

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had spent no time whatsoever

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really considering the history
previously.

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When you look across these shelves,

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you can see there is no coherent
order whatsoever.

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Some I had there and some I found
over here, too.

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Brian is on the hunt for the names
of the great and the good amongst

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almost 100 years' worth of customer
records.

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These are also old records which are
probably intermediary between the

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ones that are upstairs and the
oldest ones, which are across there.

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I'm looking for something...

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Must be put back over there.

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I think I see what I'm looking for.

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I'll need the stepladder to get
to it, however.

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This is not only archaeology, this
is mountaineering.

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Well, it wasn't arranged for
historians, that's for sure.

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Now I can go and look at this at my
leisure.

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I get to the leather from clicker as
a rough cut,

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and then I open it and started to
cut out leather as a pattern.

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So, the closing part is not that
long, actually.

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Most of the time it's preparation.

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And, also, because it's bespoke,

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I think we ought to pay attention to
even small details,

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because the customer is paying for
every single detail.

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This machine is already at least 60,
70 years old.

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But I quite like it.

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This old machine's stitch, it's like
a more bespoke look.

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Modern machine is like a more patchy
stitch.

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That's why I like it, the old one.

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Closing is... You get satisfaction
when you finish one pair of uppers

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because you see all these finished
products.

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Sometimes it really upsets me if it
doesn't go well,

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but when it goes well it really
gives me joy.

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To keep the craft alive, new
artisans

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are continually being trained.

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This morning, Iranian apprentice

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Parum is making the threads he will
need

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to hand stitch the detail on a pair
of shoes.

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We put three threads together.

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The reason is to make the thread
stronger for the hand stitch.

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And it's three because we don't want

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it to be really thick and we
don't want it to be really thin.

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We want something to look very neat
and nice,

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because it's in front of the shoes.

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British shoes are, for me, the best.

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Construction-wise, the craft of
British shoes,

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the best shoes in the world.
That's why I came here.

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The artisans working in the warrens
of St James's are just one part of a

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widespread shoemaking network.

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Closers and makers are often
employed as piece workers,

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carrying out their work in home
workshops.

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00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,920
Charlotte Wainwright does most of
her closing at home

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but comes in one day a week to train
Parum.

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Yesterday I tried to last it,
I couldn't, really.

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00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:24,360
Do you want me to do it?

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00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:26,680
You want to have a go?
Please, thank you.

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00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:32,280
You're not pulling it far enough
forward,

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00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:34,720
and then you're just pulling it
sideways.

193
00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,720
You're not pulling it away from the
angle.

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00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:39,200
I think it's just technique.

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I started here when I was about 21,
which is a long time ago.

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00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:52,760
And I knew I wanted to do a craft,
I wanted to make things.

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00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:56,160
I wrote a letter to Eric Lobb and
asked him if I could come and have a

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00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:59,520
job. And he wrote me a very funny
letter back saying that they didn't

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00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:02,600
really employ very many women and
there weren't any vacancies,

200
00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:04,800
but I could come and have a look
round.

201
00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:08,080
So, I came and then started on
Monday,

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00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:10,960
which was a bit of a shock
to all of us.

203
00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:13,520
He also told me I couldn't wear
trousers, which was...

204
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:17,080
That went. On Monday morning I came
in with trousers on.

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00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:19,840
In fact, they were jeans, which
nearly gave him a fit.

206
00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,880
Things tend not to change here that
dramatically, to be honest.

207
00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:36,440
In fact, we got really quite excited
one year because John Lobb said he

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00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:39,000
was buying a new carpet for the
shop.

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00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,400
When we came in and the new carpet
was there,

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00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:45,160
it was an exact replica of the old
one. So, there you go.

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00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:47,440
That's how they feel about change
here.

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00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:58,680
A lot of the tools that I used I

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00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:01,560
bought from people who had them
for...

214
00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:05,320
Well, they probably worked with them
for a good 60-odd years.

215
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:08,240
These I bought from somebody
called Harry,

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00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:10,280
who's probably long gone now.

217
00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:13,520
And everything that they taught me
will,

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00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:19,160
hopefully, Parum will teach somebody
else in years to come.

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That's the idea, at least you've
passed something on.

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00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:24,680
A bit of knowledge that won't die.

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00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:48,120
Down in the basement,

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00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:51,680
the leather is cut for the soles and
everything is finally gathered

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00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:53,200
together to build the shoe.

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00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,560
OLD RECORDING: Now meet Mr Henson,
a maker.

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00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:02,440
He's the man who finishes off the
job by sewing on the soles.

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00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:11,040
These days, the job is finished by
Mariano.

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00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:14,320
Another craftsman drawn to London by
Lobb's traditional ways.

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When I came over here,
I discovered that there are many

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00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:30,360
techniques that in Spain have
already died.

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00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:35,920
It will take between three to five
years of an apprenticeship,

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00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:42,040
and then it will take your entire
life to master the skills.

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00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:47,320
What I'm going to do is sew...

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00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:51,520
This is the weld. ..around the shoe.

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00:19:55,880 --> 00:20:00,120
This is the piece of leather that
attach and connects

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00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:02,160
everything on the shoe.

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00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:09,200
To weld a pair of shoes, each shoe,
it depends on the size of the shoe.

237
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:13,320
But say, like, one hour and a half,
each one.

238
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:17,920
Each shoe, not a pair.

239
00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:57,800
Well, in this particular book, these
are the accounts.

240
00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:02,400
And the first person I see under the
As is

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00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:07,080
the Right Honourable
the Viscount Alexander of Tunis.

242
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,880
Who, of course, is the wartime
leader,

243
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:14,280
wartime hero from the African
campaign.

244
00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:17,800
This is always the raw material for

245
00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:21,800
social history, for economic
history.

246
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,440
And you never know what you're going
to find.

247
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:33,640
I come to another one which looks
like an ordinary military person,

248
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:35,560
Lieutenant Colonel.

249
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:37,640
But it's Lieutenant Colonel

250
00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:39,640
Hardy Amies who, of course,

251
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:43,360
becomes Sir Hardy Amies the fashion
designer.

252
00:21:43,360 --> 00:21:45,520
And although Lobb shoes are

253
00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:49,000
sometimes accused of being
old-fashioned,

254
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,480
there are any number of fashion
designers who actually

255
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:54,840
have worn Lobb shoes.

256
00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:59,800
Like Sir Norman Hartnell,
Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta,

257
00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:05,560
so there's really a bit of a tribute
to the fact that craftsmanship is

258
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,880
never, perhaps, unfashionable.

259
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:16,000
For customers who come through that
door downstairs,

260
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:22,120
they are coming and joining in the
footsteps of celebrities, heroes,

261
00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:28,080
villains, people who have been
coming to have Lobb shoes over

262
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:29,560
three centuries.

263
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:35,520
I think the holding of
royal warrants

264
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:37,840
has been very important
throughout

265
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:40,440
the luxury trades of London.

266
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:46,200
Here we are, right in the middle of
clubland, with Boodles and Whites,

267
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,400
around the corner is
St James's Palace.

268
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,240
So, this has always been a place

269
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,000
where distinguished people have
gathered.

270
00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:57,920
And to have the royal seal of

271
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:00,440
approval, this is like an
imprimatur...

272
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:03,120
..and very precious to them.

273
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:15,840
What I'm doing is building the
heels

274
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:18,800
and you build a heel layer by layer.

275
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:27,200
Whatever you do with one shoe, you
do the same thing to the other one.

276
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,720
So, you carry on the whole process
at the same time.

277
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:42,760
Physically, it is hard as well
because I spend

278
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:47,440
most of the time sitting
down with my head bent down.

279
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:49,200
At the end of the day, you feel
stiff.

280
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:53,560
You need to love it.

281
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:59,760
It's something that has to come from
your heart,

282
00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:01,480
otherwise it's not going to work.

283
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,360
OLD RECORDING: And here are some of
the finished

284
00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:47,960
results of the processes you see.

285
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,840
All made by hand in the old
traditional way that's still the

286
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:52,920
best, even in this machine age.

287
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:56,960
All that remains now is to wrap them
up and deliver them to the customer.

288
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:59,680
And that's how famous people get
their shoes.

289
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,200
You can have a pair made yourself,
for about ten guineas.

290
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:26,520
At the end of the day,
John Hunter Lobb

291
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,680
gives the completed shoes a
final inspection.

292
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,920
I just look through them, just to
make sure everything seems OK.

293
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,840
And then they're ready for the
customer.

294
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,440
Some shoes sit there for ever.
Sometimes a customer

295
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:42,240
goes abroad for a few years.

296
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,640
Occasionally, they've been known to
run out of money.

297
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,360
That happens to people and they
can't afford them any more.

298
00:25:47,360 --> 00:25:48,960
So, they leave them with us.

299
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,560
When I started, there were lots of
nobility in England still.

300
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:00,640
They've taken rather a low profile
and they haven't quite got the same

301
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:02,720
incomes that they had in those days.

302
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:06,600
Our customers have changed,

303
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,360
and nowadays we get people from the
Middle East and Japan,

304
00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:11,080
and even from Russia and from China.

305
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,080
They're in countries where they
still have

306
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:16,120
the ability to make enough
money to have expensive items.

307
00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:23,920
One regular customer is
Wayne Scholes,

308
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:26,360
head of an American technology
company,

309
00:26:26,360 --> 00:26:30,760
who is such an admirer of Lobb shoes
that he pays his staff bonuses in

310
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:31,960
bespoke footwear.

311
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,480
Here, you get something that's made
for your feet.

312
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:40,320
For all those little weird things
that my wife makes fun of,

313
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,600
here they're just custom.
And I love that.

314
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,120
Look, it was something I could
never afford as a kid.

315
00:26:48,120 --> 00:26:51,760
My family could never have afforded
it so I think there's definitely an

316
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:53,240
aspiration thing to it,

317
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:55,720
that you want to be able
to get something that's made just

318
00:26:55,720 --> 00:27:00,640
for you. Some people choose cars and
they'll spend 100,000 or 200,000 on

319
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:02,320
a car that, for me...

320
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:06,160
Not that much interest in.
But, you know, a pair of shoes

321
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,320
that's made for me, that's
comfortable,

322
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,480
it's going to last for a long, long
time.

323
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,880
I find that pretty cool.
I think that's unique.

324
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:15,680
Thank you very much. No problem.

325
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:19,960
Thank you.

326
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:44,920
It's terrible, I can't stop looking
at them.

327
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:46,520
I want to change something.

328
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:49,840
It's fatal.

329
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:01,600
MUSIC: In These Shoes?
by Kirsty MacColl

330
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:12,680
# I once met a man with a sense
of adventure

331
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:16,520
# He was dressed to thrill
wherever he went

332
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,800
# He said, let's make love
on a mountain top

333
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,640
# Under the stars on a big hard
rock"

334
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:25,560
# I said, in these shoes?

335
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:29,520
# I don't think so

336
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:36,360
# I said,
honey, let's do it here. #