Experienced bespoke shoemakers know a lot about shoes, and it’s a positive development to see that more and more of these also take the leap into offering Ready to Wear and/or Made to Order to a larger and larger degree. Latest one is the German bespoke shoemaker Korbinian Ludwig Hess who has developed a fully handmade wholecut slipper offered below €800.
Korbinian Ludwig Hess is one of the better known German bespoke shoemakers. He learned shoemaking at Rudolf Scheer in Vienna, Austria, but for many years now he has run his own workshop in Berlin. Known for his relatively minimalistic designs, spiced with some cool cowboy boots, and it’s this approach that has been brought over to the RTW offering.
Closed channel sole with a slightly rounded waist.
First out now is a wholecut slipper model. It’s a shoe developed by Korbinian together with a workshop in Ferrara in Northern Italy, who manufacture the shoes. It’s hand lasted, hand welted and has handmade sole stitch, looks to be nicely executed based on the photos. Upper leather is Italian box calf in a nice brown shade, with vegetable tanned German calfskin for the lining. Slightly tapered heel. What’s nice is that it’s offered as a unisex shoe, in sizes from EU36 up to 46 (though the smallest and largest sizes are not in stock yet, but due to arrive in a few weeks). Can be purchased from the workshop or in their online store. The price of €779 for a fully handmade European-made shoe made to what looks to be a really high standard, sure is good value.
Good look of the shoe.
What I perhaps like the most is the proper welt finishing, with distinct fudging and handmade stitches.
The close-cut, tapered heel.
On foot. All pictures: Korbinian Ludwig Hess
Are the soles really hand stitched? It looks machine sewn to me
Gordon: That’s the specs given by Korbinian, and to me it looks can be hand stitched even if not fully align with fudging, but hard to judge with 100% certainty from these photos.