Restoration
A weekend with a Manolo restorer
Inside the Brooklyn workshop where most of our heels are reset. Why a forty-year-old shoemaker won’t Topy a 1990s Manolo, and what he does instead.
There’s a workshop in central Brooklyn we send most of our higher-end pieces to. The cobbler — we’ll call him Joe — learned shoemaking in his father’s store in Bari, Italy, before moving to New York in 1984. He has worked on shoes from every house in our supplier list, and he has a strong opinion about each.
“You don’t put a rubber sole on a Manolo. You don’t put one on a Vivier. You put it on a Coach if the customer is going to walk in it. That’s the rule.”
A wekend Saturday at Joe’s looks like this. We bring four or five pieces in a Trader Joe’s tote. Joe lays them out on a piece of unfinished pine. He picks up each one, turns it, presses on the heel, smells it, and tells us what he’ll do.
The rules he keeps
A few of his commandments:
- Never refinish leather. Conditioning is fine; refinishing changes the patina that justifies the price.
- Match the original sole material. Original leather sole goes back as a leather sole. A 1980s Coach with the original Vibram bottom gets Vibram. A Manolo from 2002 with a leather sole gets new leather, no exceptions.
- The customer doesn’t need to know the heel was reset. It needs to look exactly the way it did before, then walk for ten more years.
- Hardware is replated only when the buyer wins. A piece with original brass that has aged gracefully is more valuable than a piece with re-shined brass. The exception: hardware that is corroding and will keep corroding.
The work, by piece
The four pieces we brought him last Saturday:
- A 1992 Coach Manhattan slingback in cordovan. Heel tip is worn down to the metal nail. Joe will replace the tip on his pneumatic press, condition the leather, and re-glue a single lifting bit of the toe lining. Total turnaround: 5 days.
- A 1999 Prada Sport mule, black patent. Sole is intact but the patent leather is dry and fading at the toe-box. No structural work; deep conditioning with Saphir Vernis Rife only. Two days.
- A pair of 2001 Manolo Blahnik BB pumps in bordeaux suede. Heel cap loose on the left. Joe will re-set the cap, brush the suede with a brass brush, and treat with Collonil Carbon Pro. Three days.
- A 1980s Roger Vivier buckle pump. Lining is delaminating at the heel. Joe will reinforce the lining with a matched leather patch and re-stitch by hand. Six days. He will charge us more than we’d charge ourselves; we will pay it.
What we don’t send to Joe
Joe is too good for some of our pieces. Mid-range vintage Coach that needs a quick heel tip and a sole rubber go to a different cobbler in Bushwick who is faster and cheaper. Joe handles the pieces where the customer is paying $200 plus and we want the work to be invisible.
Why we’re writing this down
Two reasons. The first: every wekend listing names the work that was done before sale, and if you’re wondering whether “reset by Joe, conditioned” means anything, here is what it means. The second: there are exactly three people in this city we trust to put a sole on a piece worth holding for ten years. They are not advertising for new clients. We’d rather you know that than imagine it.
If you have a vintage pair you’re thinking about selling and you want a quote that includes the cobbler cost upfront, send us a piece. We’ll be honest about what it needs.
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