Tales from the atelier: Church’s shoes
Step inside the home of the classic British brand and see how its footwear is made
If you can tell everything you need to know about a person by the shoes they’re wearing, then you’d better hope they’re wearing a pair of Church’s. For the past 400 years the brand has been synonymous with quality footwear thanks to its classic, well-constructed designs and loyal customers, which have included royals, celebrities and prime ministers.
The company was founded in 1617 in Northampton, a hub for English shoemaking at the time, by the master shoemaker Anthony Church. However, Church’s as we know it was officially established in 1873 under the direction of Thomas Church, the great-grandson of the founder. During the Industrial Revolution he was able to increase orders and expand the clientele, eventually prompting the company to move operations to a larger, more modern factory in Northampton where the brand’s shoes are still made today. There, Church’s pioneered new trends in shoemaking, including half-sizing and shoes specifically designed for right and left feet — at that time it was common for shoe brands to simply sell “straights”. The company’s success in the UK led to global recognition, and by the early 1900s the company had hit the US and Canadian markets.
To this day, the calfskin leather used in all Church’s shoes is cut by hand and any additional details, such as eyelets or broguing, a style of shoe with decorative perforation patterns, are also done by hand. The leather is then left in a humidity room for 48 hours before being shaped on to the shoe last. The craftspeople at the factory are still trained in many of the traditional shoemaking techniques used since the company’s founding. For the brand’s special Crown Collection, each of the four designs is named after a London neighbourhood (Hampstead, Notting Hill, Mayfair and Belgravia). All shoes in this collection begin as white leather and dye is hand-applied to each — a process that can take up to three days alone. In total, a single pair can take 58 days to craft from start to finish.
Step inside the home of Church’s and learn exactly what makes this classic British footwear so special.
Director: Mona Tehrani
Director of photography: Jennifer Lafer
Edit: Mohsen Rasizadeh
Words: Chiara Brown
