I recently spent a gloriously sunny day at Grittleton House School in Chipenham (Wiltshire.)  I was there to lend a hand on the final day of shooting the Lodger Spring/Summer collection and thoroughly enjoyed observing the collection being photographed against the beautiful grounds and decadent Victorian building.

The beautiful images we use on Lodger’s website are shot by Martin Phelps, and Grittleton is a setting he had previously used to photograph our shoes. The house is an intriguing warren of twisting staircases, sumptuous large rooms, galleried floors and intricate flooring. This all provides a fabulous backdrop to our latest collection.

As always the images Martin shot are stunning; assisted by brilliant creative direction from Jorn, whom many of you may have met if you have dropped into Lodger on a Saturday; and Lauren, who oversees much of Lodger’s branding and creative communication. The polished images and full collection will be available online and at Lodger HQ early next year, but I thought it might be fun to share some of my rather less artistic behind-the-scenes captured moments from the final day.

Tariq and I recently made another visit to Northampton’s footwear museum archive. It’s one of our favourite sources for vintage detailing and constructions. Amongst the hundreds of catalogued pieces of footwear are shelves of shoe paraphernalia: boxes, trees, lasts, polishes and brushes, and intriguingly labelled, ‘concealed shoes.’

I’d not explored this particular branch of the collection before and asked Rebecca, the curator, to explain the pieces to me. She opened the lids to various boxes to reveal rather dusty, and in some cases dishevelled pieces of ancient footwear. The shoes had been found hidden inside buildings. Some had been discovered in cavities over doorways, others up chimneys, and one teeny pair from inside a thatched roof.  The buildings they came from varied from cottages, manor houses and even Hampton Court Palace, to factories, hospitals and schools.

It seems that the concealing of shoes was a superstition believed to bring the building and its inhabitants good luck. The shoe, as the only piece of clothing to retain the form of the owner, was believed to also retain his spirit. Many of the shoes were from children, believed to be pure and thus able to counter evil spirits. Placing shoes in wall cavities at ‘weak points’ was believed to strengthen the spirit of the building. Shoes placed high up in rafters and chimneys prevented evil from entering the dwelling at the highest point, believed to also be the most susceptible to bad spirits.

The degree of superstition and emotion attached to footwear is great. We tie old shoes to the back of wedding cars for luck, should apparently never put shoes on tables (especially new shoes) and believe old horse shoes to be lucky. I have the left shoe from my first ever pair; my Granny far away in New Zealand has the right half of the pair. For some reason these little shoes have been kept and cared for whilst dresses, coats and jumpers were handed on and discarded.

Whilst the practice of concealing shoes within buildings has pretty much died out, we still hinge much importance on our footwear. Above and beyond their practicality, we often judge others by the state of their shoes. A favourite pair is lovingly re-polished and re-soled rather than simply discarded or replaced.

At Lodger we try to cultivate the relationship between wearer and footwear. From guided selection and advice from Clement, through care and cleaning tips, to our resoling service. We are fond of each and every pair that leaves the store and hope that our clients develop the same emotional attachment to them as we have!

For SS11 I wanted a special new light colourway from our Italian factory. Their beautiful hand-painted leather technique works brilliantly for rich, multi- layered dark colours; but I wanted to see how close to the natural organic crust leather we could go without the hue looking bland.

They work with a very light crust leather that is untreated and without any ‘character.’ Our initial attempts at creating a bone colour with minimal application of staining or coloured wax were disappointing. The initial colour sample came in looking dull. We’d decided to just seal the leather with a clear coat of wax; and no more….and the result wasn’t good!

Here you can see on the right; our ‘Rum’ colour created from multiple layers of tans and browns; and on the left the pure sealed crust leather. In comparison the crust looks drab and unappealing.

So…we experimented with applying very small amounts of a grey and mid-tan mix to the contours of the shoe, highlighting areas of interest such as the toe and topline. The main body of the shoe was given a light semi-opaque tan wash…and suddenly the style came to life.

After an intense clear-wax buff, the antique ivory colour was sealed, although over time will deepen and develop more character.

This beautiful new Bone colourway will be available as part of the SS11 collection, in two Italian styles. We love it!

We’ve received a delivery of Spring boots and they are scrumptious! They marry two of our most popular pieces, the Almond Latigo English Classic brogue and our Country Boot. The split commando-soled country boot has been remarkably popular over the winter, and it’s back in a fresh new guise.

I’ve swapped the heavier Country Grain calf for Almond Latigo: a popular, lighter leather we used on the English Classic Brogue. The honey hues make it a brilliant Spring option.

I’ve kept the storm welt but this time it’s stained with a light caramel wash, matching the sole edge. The boot is double-laced with a dark brown heavy-weave bootlace, picking up the darker shades of the brogue underlay and bitter chocolate eyelets.

The boot has a gentle antiqued finish and is fully lined in plump calf.

Available online and instore soon.

In a previous blog I extolled the virtues of Valenki, moulded Russian felt boots. Mine have served me exceedingly well this winter, particularly as the snow flurries of London melted to slush. The felt provides superb traction, and is also the soling material of choice for many fly fishermen and for the rather less genteel pasttime of canyoning.

Wet felt provides a superbly suitable ‘grip’ for wader soles and for those that choose to spend their spare time hopping through pebbled river beds (see boots below). Wet felt also holds body heat far more successfully than rubber soles and dries remarkably quickly.

My fascination with felt was further increased with a curious find in the archives of the Northampton Footwear Museum. I came across the below shoe, complete with its felt sole and layered felt heel. It was labeled ‘magazine’ shoe, and has a very distinct hand stitched arrow on the toe.

I have drawn a blank so far on its origins or purpose, and am hoping one of our blog readers may be able to shed some light. As you can see, the upper is in mid-brown grain leather and sadly the sock has been removed, so no makers details are available. All information gratefully appreciated….