Shoemaker · London · Founded 2006

Gaziano & Girling

Gaziano & Girling is a shoemaker, founded in 2006, whose off-the-shelf shoes have unusually shapely, hand-polished finishing that raised standards for factory shoes.

Gaziano & Girling was founded in 2006 by Tony Gaziano and Dean Girling, both from the English shoemaking trade. It makes bespoke and a ready-to-wear line whose finishing (sculpted waists, beveled edges, hand-burnished patina) set a new standard for factory-made shoes.

BespokeMade-to-measureReady-to-wearTravels for fittings

An illustration of a welted shoe of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.

House style — shoulder: not documented

Chest — extensive handwork

Fittings 2–3 24–52 weeks

From $7,000 lowest documented, converted

Finishing as the product

The founders came from the making and the lasting sides of the trade respectively, and the house's identity is in finish: a closely sculpted waist, a fiddleback sole, a beveled edge, and colouring applied by hand in layers.

The consequential thing they did was apply that finishing to ready-to-wear. Before Gaziano & Girling, the visual language of bespoke shoemaking essentially did not exist below bespoke prices; a great deal of what the upper ready-to-wear market now looks like follows from this house.

The ready-to-wear range

Made in Kettering, Goodyear-welted, on the house's own lasts (the TG73, the DG70 and others) with the closely trimmed waists and hand-finished edges that distinguish the house. Deco and hand-painted patina finishes are offered.

It sits at the top of the English ready-to-wear market on price and competes with Edward Green, from which it differs mainly in being more sculpted and less restrained.

Why the finishing matters structurally

A closely sculpted waist is not only decorative. Trimming the sole close and bevelling the edge under the arch means less material between the foot and the ground where the foot does not need support, and a shoe that flexes where it should. It also requires the welt to be stitched much closer to the upper, which is difficult.

The fiddleback, a raised spine along the underside of the waist, is the same idea taken further, and is one of the few pieces of shoemaking ornament that follows from the construction rather than being applied to it.

Hand welted

holdfast carved from the insole

holdfast is part of the insole

Resoleable: repeatedly

Goodyear welted

canvas rib glued to the insole

gemming is glued on: the part that fails

Resoleable: several times

Blake

one seam through everything

the seam passes into the shoe

Resoleable: with a Blake machine

Cemented

sole glued to the upper

adhesive only

Resoleable: generally not

upper insole welt outsole

How a sole is attached, and whether it can be replaced The welt in the two left-hand constructions carries the sole stitching, so the sole comes off without disturbing the upper. Hand welting cuts its ridge from the insole itself; Goodyear glues a canvas rib on, and that rib is the part that eventually fails. Diagram drawn for Il Sartoriale.

The record

Founded

2006

City

London · Savile Row and Kettering

Country

United Kingdom

Service levels

Bespoke · Made-to-measure · Ready-to-wear

Shoulder