Jean-Michel Casalonga is the main lastmaker and workshop manager of one of the largest bespoke shoe workshops in the world, Berluti’s Paris workshop. Listen to a podcast episode about the pros and cons with a large in-house bespoke production, about why they now make shoes their shoes softer than they used to do, about how one can get a chance to work at Berluti, and much more.
The French company Berluti is one of the bigger quality shoe brands in the world, nowadays more of a full fashion menswear brand, owned by the luxury conglomerate LVMH, with stores all around the world. Berluti has two workshops making their bespoke shoes, one in Paris above their original Rue Marbeuf store just next to the Champs Élysées, led by Jean-Michel Casalonga, and one outside Angers in Western France, led by Anthony Delos.
In this episode, number 22, Jean-Michel Casalonga tell the interesting story of how he in a relatively unorthodox way managed to get his place at Berluti, hear about his love of lastmaking and how he wants to raise its status in France, about how it is to run a large bespoke workshop doing all in-house and the pros and cons of this set-up compared to the use of freelancers, and much, much more.
Listen to the episode below, or in your preferred podcast player. All episodes of the Shoegazing Podcast can be found here. If you like the podcast, please give it a good rating or comment in your podcast player.
Read a report from Berluti’s bespoke workshop in Paris here.
Terrific episode, very interesting, thank you both!
Super Jesper and Jean-Michel and thanks for sharing!
McGhillie and Andre: Thanks a lot both, glad you enjoyed it! Jean-Michel really is a great guy.
Very good listening. Thank you, Jesper; your podcast always has valuable information in it.
Robert Konshak: Glad you think so, cheers!