My passion for red shoes is well kept secret

October 25, 2024

Until the late Pope Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger) was profiled with his bespoke “red slippers” few outside the gentlemen’s apparel scene paid attention to red shoes as a style statement. Those old enough to remember the young Judy Garland may know of “ruby slippers” without thinking about their magical color. Ferrari red certainly became iconic, but not because of Enzo’s footwear. In fact red is usually identified with girls, as opposed to blue for boys. But the truth is the reverse. For most of Western history blue was the color for girls because it was the heraldic color of the Virgin Mary. Only in the 20th century was the order reversed.

So when I decided to specialize in artisan men’s clothing I returned to the tradition of centuries and adopted red shoes as the hallmark for fine men’s style. Naturally I did not start wearing red suits. Style is not fanaticism or exaggeration. Rather it is the careful application of significant accents. My shoes carefully contrast with understated sartorial excellence. They are “the dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t'” in a classic form of dressing.
Anthony Quinn starred in a 1962 adaptation of Morris West’s bestseller The Shoes of the Fishermanwhere he played a modest priest elevated to the Pontificate. His stylistic simplicity was contrasted to the prior opulence of the Holy See. It became a metaphor for understated virtue instead of ostentatious hypocrisy. His shoes were ordinary but his feet were not.
While I had no ambition to supply the Vatican, my travels through the landscape of Italian artisanry convinced me that slippers or house shoes could be made to express style in the modest privacy of a gentleman’s home. I decided to introduce a quality of domestic footwear that would embody those attributes I have spent more than two decades giving my shirts and other accessories. Black or brown are surely just as dignified.
It all began with prototyping. At my shoemaker’s studios the samples are conceived by the creative office, examined and translated into technical drawings. Subsequently, the drawings are transferred to model making, where a mold for the shoe is produced. This is a high-precision activity, performed manually or with digital support. The designed paper applied to the mold is carefully removed by the pattern maker and laid out on a cardboard as a first sketch of the style. From this pattern all of the parts that will make up the finished product are obtained.
Single components are cut and inserted in a chart accompanied by a technical data sheet with all the product information: color and type of leather, necessary thread, structure components, such as sole and heel. The selection of fine materials, e.g. leather, velvet or fabrics for the lining has to be made with due regard for comfort and the conditions of household wear. The finished slipper or house shoe must survive the altitudes of staircases, the damp and soiled terrain between the living room and the news agent or bakery around the corner, and the critical gaze of guests. Although they are not intended for St. Peter’s Square or the Mall, they must be comfortable “urbi et orbi” nonetheless.
Picture of Ignatious Joseph

Ignatious Joseph

Author & Designer

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