View “Steps to Perfection”

Photography by Erla Zwingle, Contributing Editor
Written by Erla Zwingle, Contributing Editor

Precisely measuring the foot, Step One in this process, is the reason these are called “made-to-measure” shoes. There could be as many as 35 different measurements, but Daniela relies on the few basics she learned from her mentors. Among the most important is this angle, from the heel to where the instep joins the ankle, which will determine the dimensions of the “throat” of the shoe, the space into which you slip your foot.

Before beginning construction, Daniela sketches the probable shape of the shoe’s “toebox.”

A pair of lasts, modified to correspond to a client’s foot. The last must be of a material that will withstand water as well as the stresses of pulling, hammering and nailing. (Walnut was once the preferred wood, but today beech and spruce are more likely, unless the shoemaker opts for plastic.) As late as 1850, shoes were made on perfectly straight lasts, with no difference between right and left foot; people were expected to switch their shoes every few days, to make them wear evenly.

Daniela doesn’t often reproduce a shoe, but these sandals, which she made with snakeskin, she is now replicating in orange-red kangaroo. Inside each loop is a barely discernible border of yellow leather; the will pare down strips of orange kangaroo for a similar tiny, delicate border.

Just like clothes, shoes are made from patterns. This is the pattern that will guide her replicas of the snakeskin sandals.

Properly cutting leather according to a pattern requires not only strength and concentration, but also unusual precision; mistakes are almost impossible to conceal.

The entire hand is engaged in cutting leather: the forefinger to exert pressure and trace the line of the cut, the third finger to brace the first and to maintain the correct angle of the knife blade, the fourth and fifth to keep the whole hand steady. This is especially the case for soft leathers of the kind that Daniela uses. And pushing down for hours on end on the edge of a metal tool that is about the width of a fingernail file can be painful. Daniela has wrapped some masking tape, invisible here, around the knife to somewhat soften the sensation.

Daniela shaves minute shreds from the back of the kangaroo skin, using a glass surface to protect the edge of the knife. Despite the quality of her work, Daniela knows she sacrifices some income by avoiding Venice’s haute social realm, the world of soirees in palazzos and opening nights at La Fenice. “I’d have more work if I’d entered certain channels — the acquaintances, the invitations — but I’d never have been myself. The prince and the laborer are the same to me. And maybe I’d prefer the laborer.”

Erla Zwingle, Contributing Editor, has written for dozens of magazines over the past 30 years, primarily National Geographic, to which she has contributed 25 articles as well as writing its Guide to Venice.

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