(The Original) John Lobb, London
William Lobb, 5th generation shoemaker
Frank Sinatara's boot last
Rows and rows of lasts stacked to the ceiling
Dusty old sales records - i love stuff like this |
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Friday, June 06, 2008
William Lobb, 5th generation shoemakerFrank Sinatara's boot lastRows and rows of lasts stacked to the ceilingDusty old sales records - i love stuff like this
Comments on "(The Original) John Lobb, London"
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post a commentwow that is amazing :)
so funny they kept all those sales records!
This is truly amazing...
There's something very Harry Potter-esque about those old stacks.
wow,
very cool behind-the-scenes photos. I love the history being portrayed
Your photos just keep getting better and better.
Smart, smart, smart! It even feels smart to look at these pictures!
Great pictures. The world looses so much when shops like these close; I'm glad to see one that has survived. Thanks for sharing.
I might sound stupid but i feel there is so much lives and passion and human stories and know-how in all these images... Great pictures : they carry loads of emotion...
AWESOME photos!!
harry potter-esque, i love it. reminds me of the wand shop except less arcane
He's cute!!
I can't believe that they keep all those stays. I love his shoes though. I guess it only makes sense.
That is one of the coolest things!
x sara o
Working for an Italian shoe company
I am in love with the ancient craft behind shoe making...sometimes we (especially women) buy shoes because they're expensive and cool but forget the sweat it took to bring that shoe to life. These pictures are magical. I hope these traditions will never be cancelled by the sometimes "cruel" rules of economy...
The shelves of shoes...I'm not even kidding, one of my favourite photographs ever!
I love that places like this and people like him are still in business!
Only a shoe, suit or shirt can fit perfectly if it is made for you. If you can afford it, of course!
Great shoes and a great place too.
These pictures are truly amazing. I find myself going back to them over and over again. Sart, keep them coming. This is your best work ever!
very exciting post. love the lobb fam
Wonderful. Thanks for posting this, Sart. I have immense respect for such craftsmen. Lobb (and others like it) are a reassuring presence in a market dominated by made-in-Asia (or wherever) crap.
Mmmm love that. Lucky you getting a backstage tour...!
Thats awesome ! No plastic anywhere.
Kind of like a bone-yard for feet.
Imagine some of the clients in those archives. Winston Churchill, Cary Grant, the lineage must be amazing.
I love this! Fun to know amazing places like this still exist.
This is completely what the Huffington Post was talking about -- art-porn.
My shoe fetish is so extreme, that a (beautiful) photograph of lasts gives me butterflies.
Nothing better than an old craftsman dig!
Best shoes I've seen on this site.
I love these pictures so much i can only imagin hoe it must have felt and smelled in this beautiful place.Thank you so much for sharing them with me
looks like a Harry Potter scene....sooooo magical!!!!
really beautiful pictures!!
I am fascinated to see behind the scene of Lobbs. My grandfather had his shoes made by them virtually all his life. One day in the late 1990s when the bill for a new pair arrived (handwritten , probably svereal months after the shoes were dispatched) he looked at it and was mildly shocked to see the price had risen to over 800 pounds. 'Goodness' he said 'this really will have to be the last pair!' he was 96 at the time... sad to say it was the last pair, but i'm sure his lasts are somewhere in your photo. Thanks, Sart.
ps - did you go to Locks Hatters next door too?
I don't know what's better, being married to a plastic surgeon or a shoemaker.
Lovely images.
The sentiments remind me of the movie "Kinky Boots."
How do we keep the wonderful craftsmen around us? Sometimes it's too cost-prohibitive to make things by hand anymore, and that is sad to me.
Thanks.
This is an awesome behind the scenes look at John Lobb, love it man!
I very much enjoy this post. I love modern stores that keep relics from their past.
I love this series of pictures! They're so warm and inviting and am very glad you included them - thanks. And I think John Lobb is one handsome fella.
What biltud said...Harry Potter and his first trip to the wand shop immediately came to mind. Very cool indeed!
A shop with museum-like qualities. How wonderful to have a peek at this!
And heavens, Mr. Lobb is quite handsome in blue!
Thank you.
D.
Me so jealous.
Who reads Huff Po anyway, when you can just link right to Earl's blog.
wish this photo came with a scratch and sniff- nothing on the planet smells as good as old books.
Except maybe frangapani.
Great photos!
cool,very cool
It's like stepping back in time! What a marvelous opportunity to witness this
If you push a last, does a room open up before you?
Great photos, and a great store! I too love places like that. A step back in time of a historic and classic store. Thanks!
Great photoes! But his pants are way too long...
If the lot of you are just in love with Lobb this much. I would highly recommend a proper visit to Jermyn Street in the near future, Savile Row has lost most of its old boy charm, Jermyn has it by the bloody bucket load.
Its funny that Mr. Lobb is wearing the only actual shoes in a post-- that relies on his family's legacy as shoemakers. The place looks magical. What are the shoes like? Still as fantastic and finely crafted as the ambiance would lead one to believe?
I bet these pics from the back shop are a scoop. Great
On my list of things-to-do-in-this-lifetime, to go to that shop and get a beautiful pair of cognac brown cap-toe shoes mtm...
Scott, thanks for the best blog around!
All that history and love of the craft in that shope. Just WOW!
Such a span of artifacts and records is tremendously valuable to history, and breathtaking to see moving seamlessly forward. I love seeing stuff like this too.
Really love this photos and particularly the old book !!
I also love stuff like this. Great post!
oweeeeh, harry potter!
these pictures are great, evoking a feeling of trust somehow, you know you can trust old things and you feel at home with them, theres no advertising or packages or cons and pros, just the product in all it's quality.
i like it.
:)
Delicious!
Something very moving about all that history!
Wanted to add that it reminded me of an amazing glove shop that I visited in Rome once.
It was a small dingy shop but this charming old Italian (he was about 75 and still a lady charmer ^.~) just wipped out this pair of perfect gloves which fitted my hands like a second skin! I have super long spidery fingers so normally the glove fingers are too short for me.
Needless to say I was mighty imporessed! Plus, his gloves were are in boxes stacked very high up on the sides; just like the wand boxes in the Harry Potter movie.
I just so respect and appreciate skilled craftsmans. Always make me so happy to see things like that ^.^
Pitty you can't capture the smell, what a wonderful, delighting experience it must be to be shown around such a place. Would love to sanctify the place -
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
DEEEEELISHIOUSSSS!
THX SAR
that is very nice ! more pictures pls .
ed
oh, thank you thank you! my family was close friends with them when we lived in england but haven't seen them in ages, since eric lobb died. this is such a nice photo series and memory :)
what a load of cobblers!
Now, if only I could afford the Lobb loafers I saw in Palm Beach the other day... Jorge from West Palm Beach
i do wear Lobbs,i used to get them in Paris at Hermes,or though English shoes aesthetically are the only formal shoes i like,they happen to be killers...and Crocket...Heavens above!beautiful but killers...A friend of mine told me recently that Prince Charles has his new shoes worn by his valet for 6 months before using them...That makes a great sense,or though when we have no servants to do that for us,suffering the pain in silence is the only posible solution.
God bless Lobb!
Italian shoes a sooo very soft...but not dressy enough...too relaxed...if you get what I do mean.
JNG
i love it- i love the history of all the people that have came before. its so nostalgic
I love these photographs. Would love to see more. I've had shoes made for me --there's nothing like it.
The picture of the dusty old sale recors reminds me of Ollivander's shop in Harry Potter, the wandmaker.
I love stuff like this too,the pictures are wonderful!
I still use a pair of my grandfather's old Lobb shoe trees. They consist of three pieces of wood that work with a wedge action, and each piece is topped with a polished brass plate with my grandfather's name and 'Lobb Maker' engraved on them. Each plate is held in place with several screws. Beautiful things.
Seeing so much of "gout Anglais" turn false and contrived, it's reassuring to know that Lobb is still true to it's values. I own some of the newer, Hermes/Lobb readymade shoes, but my two pairs of Lobb, Ltd. bespokes are personal treasures.
I've had them for years, never ordered anything else, but I know that those lasts are in the cellar, waiting, and I think that's a wonderful kind of permanency in the modern world. Thanks for the pictures. They're beautiful and bring back happy memories.
Really enjoyed these photos - wish the series was longer in fact
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI got his boots made at Lobb. I've always wanted to go in there and say can I have the same as him
Lobb the Cobbler... how wonderful
I wish I had the money to buy one or two of their bespoke. aaargh! Why am I so poor whilst having such a good taste in clothing and shoes I cannot afford!!
"How do we keep the wonderful craftsmen around us? Sometimes it's too cost-prohibitive to make things by hand anymore." This IS the question. Stop buying disposable clothing is a partial answer.
It's the same in architecture: a lot of concrete but no more artisans to decorarte the facades we still appreciate after centuries.
Modernity killed the craftsmen.
am so pleased to say that for several years i worked as a bartender at a restaurant in san francisco, and we wore whites-and-blacks like most restaurant folks, but nice red aprons in a style like the 1st pic. i was surprised at a co-worker who walked out like that onto the street to hail a cab for a customer. of course he got one immediately. love working-class clothes with style
The last three photographs are reminicient of Abelardo Morell. Out standing work.
Jeff
Lenshare.blogspot.com
I love stuff like this too--my whole business is built around stuff like this. Love your blog, by the way.
There is something magical in the atmosphere of this shop.
Possibly in that there is over 100 years of history, and the knowledge that should original customers still be alive, they would still be purchasing their shoes from Lobbs - I am sure!
And to the blogger who wrote:
"How do we keep the wonderful craftsmen around us?...
Modernity killed the craftsmen"
.... I am investigating this in my dissertation this year so you may be interested in contacting me, I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic!
This also applies to any others of you who read this.