History of men's shoes
2. Basically British with a cosmopolitan twist
3. Frame-sewn - the noblest form of quality
4. True beauty comes from within
5. "So the shoe should be cut" - craftsmanship gives prestige
6. The style revolution eats its children
7. From Eppler's invention to Goodyear's patent
9. For dandies, hipsters & co.
Down with the old junk
Brocade vest with knee breeches, stiletto heels and puffy lace cuffs? ... How boring. Around the turn of the century before last, a young style rebel by the name of George Bryan "Beau" Brummel triggered a minor tsunami in men's fashion, the effects of which can still be felt today.
Cavalier in high-heeled shoes, 18th century
Brummel's innovative look, with which he first amazed and then inspired, relied on artful simplification and a blasé attitude and made the English politician's son and Eton model student - while revolutionary turbulence and the Napoleonic Wars of Liberation were raging on the European continent - a fashion innovator.
Muted colors, a slim silhouette and a tie tied with perfect nonchalance were now more elegant and contemporary than a representatively frilly and overly stiff male attire, which was worn with a menuet-like staging and had previously been based on the great model of the French court of Versailles.
Basically British with a cosmopolitan twist
The new English-style men's suit, consisting of long trousers and a straight jacket, worn with light calf boots and flat leather shoes, laid the foundation for a men's wardrobe that is still quintessential today
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Italian gentlemen in sporty suits, year 1906
Even though its components have been reshaped over the last two hundred years by various cultural influences from outside the island - with "cummerbunds" and "jodhpur ankle boots" primarily by England's Crown Colony of India, and later also by European and transatlantic influences - a man is still impeccably dressed in it to this day.
But of course, over the last hundred years, these influences have also made the modern gentleman proportionately more Indian, Neapolitan, Bavarian, American and "Kakan" (shaped by the old k-u-k Danube monarchy) - with correspondingly expanded possibilities for nuanced individual expression.
Frame-stitched - the noblest form of quality
When it comes to shoes, the origins of what distinguishes a good shoe from a very good shoe also go back centuries. Unlike women's shoes, the focus for men's shoes today is no longer primarily on material and design, which must of course be first-class, but also on craftsmanship. All experts agree that a good men's shoe must be stitched. For flexible, lightweight moccasins and Mediterranean-style loafers, a seam connecting the upper to the sole is sufficient - in other words, loafers "only" need to be sewn through. A technique that is also known as the Blake or McKay style after the inventors of the corresponding machines in the 19th century.
But the true English classics, which are also commonly referred to as business shoes, albeit too narrowly, must have two seams. With a leather strip called a "welt", they attach a total of two soles to the upper of the shoe to be considered first-class.
True beauty comes from within
This welt stitching technique has long been regarded as the most sophisticated and truly royal technique in shoemaking. However, it only achieved its current outstanding significance with the Brummel style revolution and the entry into the bourgeois age two hundred years ago. At that time, the splendid courtly buckle shoes were "shrunk" to more or less inconspicuous linings, whose beauty now came from within - based on highly developed craftsmanship. The understatement was born. Political romantics also want to recognize in this the expression of a new republican modesty. Really? Realists and cool-headed analysts are more likely to point to a sophisticated, refined form of status and distinction.
"So the shoe should be cut" - craftsmanship gives prestige
Because, of course, the beautiful Brummel and his followers worked for shoemakers who sewed their outwardly unspectacular shoe models with particularly fine pearl stitches and then made the seam disappear elegantly into the sole. It was a high level of craftsmanship that brought pleasure to the wearer of the shoes - and prestige to the outside world. This was not only popular at the time, but also had a long tradition - even if hardly anyone was aware of it.
Today, we know from a surviving sketch by Albrecht Dürer that the brilliant Nuremberg engraver energetically instructed his shoemaker in 1523 "so the shoe should be cut" and expressly insisted on "toppeln Soln", i.e. welted production.
Although, or perhaps because only respected patricians were allowed to wear welted shoes around 1500, Dürer confidently risked a thick sole. He knew what he was worth as an artist and wanted to show it. Craftsmen and peasants had to make do with thin reversible shoes made in the medieval style.
The style revolution eats its children
Around the middle of the 19th century - when our good Brummel had already been dead for a few years - groundbreaking inventions once again turned the world of elegant fashion upside down as we had known it until then.
In 1845, the American Elias Howe invented the first sewing machine, with which shoe uppers could soon be mass-produced. His compatriots, the inventors Lyman Reed Blake and Gordon McKay, were soon able to further develop the machine so robustly that from 1860 it was also possible to sew solid shoe soles with it and join them to the shoe upper in this way. This paved the way for the completely industrial production of shoes.
Only welted shoes remained the preserve of shoemakers due to their sophisticated bottom construction - until the American industrialist Charles Goodyear applied for patents for two pioneering new sewing machines around 1869 and 1870: for stitching the shoe frame and for attaching the soles of welted shoes. A sensation!
From Eppler's invention to Goodyear's patent
Goodyear, son of the eponymous inventor of rubber vulcanization, bought these ingenious developments from the Württemberg designer and shoemaker Andreas Eppler, who had emigrated from the small German state to the United States. Goodyear presented the new machines at the World's Fair in Philadelphia in 1876 - and was to revolutionize shoe production worldwide. The triumphant advance of the new production method also continued in Europe from the 1880s onwards.
As the shoe factories did not buy these machines, but rented them from Goodyear and paid per sewn shoe, shoes sewn on Goodyear's machines are still referred to as "goodyear" sewn or "goodyear-welted" to this day.
This term is only less common in regions where craftsmanship was more important. In Hungary, for example, the double-stitched style was just as common as the welted style for a long time. And this is not only because the double-stitching machines were not made by Goodyear, but by Andreas Eppler, but for reasons that go back much further in time.
Magyar shoemaking
Is it because of their Magyar ancestry? In fact, in Hungary, where this warlike equestrian people settled over a thousand years ago, the leather and shoemaking trade has been particularly highly developed since time immemorial. Even in the time of Emperor Franz Josef, the cavalry was held in particularly high esteem - possibly for this very reason. As the k-u-k officers wanted to be provided with beautiful boots, there were an above-average number of shoemakers who could satisfy even the most demanding requirements.
k-u-k. Shoemaker's sample factory, year 1908
This not only shaped a lively shoe and boot-making culture in Austria-Hungary, but people also liked to incorporate foreign ideas and adapt them to their own traditions. This is how the welted Scottish-English "brogue" became the double-stitched "Budapester" with a brass-nailed sole - and soon became so popular that it has also become a classic that even the old hipster Brummel would have enjoyed.
Shoe shapes in the area of the former Danube monarchy also show an unmistakable regional signature. With a strong joint and typically steep toe cap, they are now exported worldwide as "Hungarian lasts" and somewhat less distinctive as "Viennese lasts".
For dandies, hipsters & co.
The fact that Brummel's rediscovery of the culture of craftsmanship is still alive today and that this cultural heritage in southern Europe has survived forty years of socialism and is more alive than ever is good news for all dandies, hipsters, gentlemen and lovers of a sophisticated clothing culture. And at the same time a mission. Plastic shoes and sneakers come and go, sewn leather shoes remain ... the better alternative. Shoes from lászló realize a "wonderful friendship" of European style and anatomical function - in a secondary benefit at the same time a beautiful investment in European integration.