The Hanger Project’s Youtube channel has released its most ambitious project to date, a one hour documentary about the legendary bespoke shoemaking house John Lobb Ltd. in London.
It’s a visit to the showroom and large workshop in St. James, London, where Kirby Allison of The Hanger Project meets two of three brothers Lobb running the business today, Jonathan and Nicholas, as well as a few of the craftsmen of the company. It’s more produced than the regular videos on the channel, and as mentioned also longer, a bit over one hour. It’s an interesting glimpse into the bespoke world, especially for those who haven’t seen much before.
The last room of John Lobb, a lovely place.
It’s also an interesting history lesson, not only about Lobb, but about what a huge industry the shoemaking trade was back in the days, the third largest in England at second half of 1800. Also interesting to hear about how the trade has developed by some of the workers who has been there for a long time. Then it’s a bit too “humbled”, as often is the case with these types of films or articles. For example, it would have been tremendously interesting to have a question about the problems with quality control that both former employees and recent customers witness about, when Jonathan Lobb talks about how one of the brothers always check every pair before they are delivered to customers. John Lobb St. James is an institution in the shoe world, they are a large producer of bespoke shoes and hence both an important employer and educator of the trade, simply too important to not keep the level high, which this documentary is a proof of.
View the full film below:
chrisaphilton@mac.com