Diana Foster at United American Costume Co. made me feel very welcome.

Their collection is steeped in the history of old western films and has a very personal, family feel. Loads of great items, some of which I hope to find time to share the details of on Instagram.

I wish we made westerns in Europe more often, I was surrounded by clothes I would love the opportunity to use. Who knows, maybe there will be a spaghetti western revival and we'll all be off to Spain.

Anyway ... these shoes ... I feel sure now that these are the bulldog toes I blogged about last year.?

Remix Shoes felt like a pilgrimage. Years of looking online, finally a visit.

Classic Shoes for Men are having a sale - 20% discount this weekend.

Spitalfields Life last week had an article about medieval finds from the area. Wooden plates from a well and ceramics still blackened from The Great Fire are all part of the collection in the Museum of London but obviously I was especially interested in these thirteenth century boots found at the bottom of a cesspit in Spital Square.

Classic Shoes for Men

Classic Shoes for Men. Purveyors of traditional shoes from the best shoemakers in the world; a very good resource for fine period footwear and an interesting site for information regarding the manufacture and history of rare shoes.

boots c1895, shoes c1930

Calzados Toledo Footwear. Madrid.

I finally made it back to La Latina neighbourhood and found the shoe shop I blogged about after my research trip.
No web presence, no english, pure artisano, hand crafted, leather footwear in a friendly, welcoming shop. Easy. I may even have found a place in this film to use a pair.

Calzados Toledo can be found at Calle Toledo 20, 28005 Madrid. Tel. 91 366 54 71

Costume Research: Seville & Madrid

I've been in Seville and Madrid researching Spanish 'types'.
To grasp the look of Seville in three days, I took a whistle-stop tour of as many neighbourhoods and venues as I could, allowing me to see a cross-section of society from churchgoers to flea-marketeers, restaurant customers to the everyday patrons of a fantastic flamenco bar called L'Anselma.
Typial colours in winter are rich browns and ochres; the colour of the earth around Seville.
The lady in the fur coat in the top photograph was not unusual.

I saw these great hand-made leather shoes and boots in Madrid, the shop was closed so I had to squeeze my camera between the bars of the shutter to get a record of them, I will find out more and post the details when we go back, the sandals in particular will be very handy for period.

McManus Gallery, Dundee.

Happy New Year.
I am a little late getting going with blogging in 2012, it's been a hectic time.

We recently visited the newly refurbished McManus Gallery in Dundee where I saw this great pair of boots and charming Inuit doll.
The dolls were traditionally made by young girls as they learned the domestic skills of skinning the animal and processing the skins for clothing.

Thank you for sticking with me, I've been a bad blogger lately but I feel I'm back on track!

Shoes from Supermarket Sarah

Unusual and period shoes available to rent can be really hard to use due to poor condition or just not enough stock, often I am trying to think of alternatives which are in production and could work in an unexpected way for characterful costumes or period design.
I love these work shoes, available through Supermarket Sarah and even better, they are a really good price - £90.00.

Excellent Childen's Period Footwear

Katy sent me this link to Victor & Victorine, the shoes are perfect for period work and pretty cute for contemporary too.
Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures, we don't have an actual pair to photograph.

Soul Girls

My Holy Grail of footwear, age ten.
These have never been worn, a bargain at £12.
Four sizes too small for me, unfortunately.
I still love the way they look and I know exactly the outfit they'd be worn with but if in doubt, check out any mid 1970's issue of Jackie comic for inspiration.

Silk Boots C.1860

 

Shown to me as samples today in a Hungarian costume house, I'm guessing these original silk boots date from around 1860. Supposed to be looking for things we can actually use in our film, I was easily distracted and stopped to take photographs for personal reference.

Shoes

'Good for costume...(but not my taste for life).' Is a thought that goes through my mind about once an hour ..... a good example - a girl came into the shop today wearing these medieval shoes.