Schoenmaker · Florence · Opgericht 1983

Stefano Bemer

Stefano Bemer is a Florence shoemaker known for refined shoes made by hand to each customer's measurements, and it now also runs a shoemaking school.

Stefano Bemer established his Florence workshop in 1983 and built a reputation for hand-welted bespoke shoes of unusual refinement. After his death in 2012 the workshop was continued under the same name, and it now runs a shoemaking school alongside the bespoke and ready-to-wear business.

BespokeMade-to-measureConfectie

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

Huisstijl — schouder: niet gedocumenteerd

Borstomvang — extensive handwork

Pasingen 2–3 24–52 weken

Van $5,400 laagste gedocumenteerde, omgerekend

Continuity after a founder

Bemer died young, and what happened next is unusual: the workshop was taken on and kept running rather than closing or becoming a licence. The school it now operates trains makers in the same methods, which is a more durable form of continuity than a name.

The shoes are hand-welted, with the close waist and elegant proportions associated with Italian bespoke shoemaking, and the house also offers a ready-to-wear line.

What the shoes look like

Italian bespoke proportions: a close waist, an elegant elongated toe, and a fine welt. The finishing is refined rather than showy, and the house works in a wide range of leathers including cordovan and exotics.

The ready-to-wear line is made on the house's own lasts and is considerably less expensive, with the construction stated per model.

The school

The workshop runs courses in bespoke shoemaking, from short introductions to programmes lasting months. This matters beyond the business: shoemaking is transmitted by apprenticeship and almost nowhere still offers one, so a workshop that teaches is doing something the trade cannot do without.

For a customer, the practical relevance is that the house's continuity after its founder's death rests on trained makers rather than on a name, which is the more durable arrangement.

A workshop that outlived its founder

Stefano Bemer died in 2012 and the workshop continued, which is rarer than it sounds; a bespoke business built on one maker's hands usually ends with them. It continued because the operation had already been structured to train people, and the training function remains part of what the house does.

For a customer the relevant question with any house in this position is simply who is making the shoe now, and it is a fair question to ask directly.

Met de hand gerande

houdrand uitgesneden uit de binnenzool

de holdfast maakt deel uit van de binnenzool

Herbezoelbaar: herhaaldelijk

Goodyear-gerande

canvasrib gelijmd aan de binnenzool

gemming is gelijmd: het onderdeel dat het begeft

Herbezoelbaar: meerdere malen

Blake

één naad door alle lagen

de naad loopt door in de schoen

Herbezoelbaar: met een Blake-machine

Gelijmd

zool gelijmd aan het bovenwerk

uitsluitend gelijmd

Herbezoelbaar: doorgaans niet

bovenwerk binnenzool rand buitenzool

Hoe een zool wordt bevestigd, en of hij vervangen kan worden De welt in de twee linker constructies draagt het zoolstiksel, zodat de zool kan worden verwijderd zonder het bovenwerk te verstoren. Bij handwelting wordt de rand uit de binnenzool zelf gesneden; Goodyear lijmt een canvasrib aan, en die rib is het onderdeel dat uiteindelijk het begeeft. Diagram getekend voor Il Sartoriale.

Het dossier

Opgericht

1983

Stad

Florence

Land

Italy

Service levels

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

Schouder