Minimal metamorphosis

As our eyes prepared to focus on the spring/summer 14 catwalks of New York, Converse and Maison Martin Margiela treated us to teasers of their much publicised creative coming together. For their first confident stride forward, Converse Chuck Taylor All Star and Jack Purcell trainers were drenched in Maison Martin Margiela's iconic white paint. Covering all canvas, eyelets, laces and soles, the old favourites are altered simply yet radically. All white everything. A palette and sole cleanser. For me, the French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry best defined minimalist design as being “not when there is nothing more to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away.” This is a makeover from a true minimalist iconoclast. However, what interests me most is that the white washing is just the start. As soon as the paint filled brush leaves the Converse classics, they naturally crack and shed their outer coat to reveal their original selves beneath. So simple and transformative, the hand painted act is the beginning of a unique dialogue between both brands. As they advance with age with each step forward and evolve in the everyday, they reveal their true selves in their own way. Wear and tear is rarely so intriguing and so obvious.

From well loved wallets to beautiful brogues, the gentle ageing of leather is a an ever absorbing process but it takes its time. The blank Converse canvas encourages change. Thankfully, after following fashion's conveyor belt through from London to Milan and Paris, two pairs of ice white Jack Purcells were waiting for me at the office. A few weeks of pacy peddling, puddle plummeting and pavement pounding has seen a rich burgundy hue peek out from beneath the cracks on one pair (black, blue and an exclusive yellow are also hidden behind the white wash) whilst the other is still perfectly wrapped in its thick blanket of white. Minimal metamorphosis. Using a recent paint tin spill in the car park as the ideal backdrop, I couldn't resist documenting their difference.

New new and old new. 
Converse and Maison Martin Margiela
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The Meeting of Two American Dreamers

"We both like to inject a bit of attitude and our personality into classics," George Esquivel excitedly exclaims whilst standing at the centre of his hive of craftsmanship, a lively leather scented, three and half thousand square foot workshop in Orange County. His voice races as he whizzes us around on a whistle stop tour of his world. Between three and four thousand shoes a year are clicked, closed, welted, finished and furnished by his close knit family of craftsmen but there is a discernible delight echoing around the space today. Why? The reality of two American dreamers' shared fantasy is taking shape before their ever eager eyes. After creating exclusive shoes for Tommy Hilfiger's autumn/winter 13 menswear show, the pair have taken their collaboration to the next level. Forming a dynamic duo draped in red, white and blue, the result is a limited edition capsule collection of footwear hand made in California.

"It all comes out of here," Esquivel proudly proclaims, arms and smile stretched wide. From the quiet, unassuming, commercial enclave that his workshop resides to the temples to high society in the centre of Los Angeles, this is very much George Esquivel's world. Having been warned that is was something of a Marmite metropolis, that I'd either love it or loathe it, Esquivel and team Tommy combined to be the skeleton key to a once in a lifetime exploration of the ever sprawling an wildly eclectic city. They combined to make it the perfect summer getaway and I left in love. Esquivel's first excited words of many as he welcomed this fortunate group of bloggers and journalists were a declaring that he'd be taking us bowling. "It's at the Rosevelt Hotel, it's a two-lane, it's a gaming parlour with a vintage bowling alley called the Spare Room, I actually made the shoes. Everyone is there. I received a text the other night that Brad Pitt and Angelina were bowling in my shoes, it was amazing. It's so much fun. It's what I call cool LA not crazy LA." Like any good guide, Esquivel combined local knowledge with a constant flow of captivating narrative. His path into shoemaking alone could easily translate to the silver screen and be a box office smash.

"My childhood was pretty crazy. We grew up mostly in and out of motels, on welfare and food stamps. I’m the oldest of five so there were seven of us in the motel room and then my dad went to jail." From running drugs in his youth to watching his father go to jail for murder and homelessness to a life backstage at punk gigs, Esquivel is not your typical shoemaker but it is fuelled by a familiar passion. He fell into shoemaking in the mid 1990s after a failed attempt to find the perfect vintage-inspired shoe. A muso, the designer was immersed in California's rich punk and rockabilly scenes and needed shoes to match his unique aesthetic. "I used to buy vintage clothes and shoes but I could never find anything I liked in terms of new footwear," he reminisces. He spent years scouring the state for an able shoemaker to realise his whims and fancies but to no avail. After arguing with one cobbler over a pair that didn't meet his insatiably high standards, he was about to throw in the polishing rag but his shoe salvation arrived in the form of a bystander who, intrigued by Esquivel's impassioned pleas, followed him out of the shop. "He introduced himself as a shoemaker and said, 'I don't know why but I like you and I want to make you some shoes.'" The man was Emigdio Canales, a retired master cobbler who operated a cottage industry shoe factory out of his garage. He quickly became Esquivel's collaborator and mentor.

"In the beginning, it was just a hobby, selling shoes to friends," he modestly explains. These friends soon morphed into musical heroes. From admiring glances towards his own feet at gigs to requests from musical friends and ultimately to touring buddies, the good word of Esquivel spread. "The small local bands that I used to hang out would go on tour with the big bands, and they would often ask about their shoes and they'd hand them my card and say 'Call George, he'll sort you out.'" A business began to thrive. Esquivel has never stopped learning. From scurrying around shoe repair shacks to crafting shoes for the elite of Los Angeles and beyond, the collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger marks another confident step forward. As Esquivel's tale bounces around your brain, take our hand and let us lead you, as he did to us, on a quick tour of his world as the fruits of his latest creative coming together began to take shape.

Much like Tommy Hilfiger,  George Esquivel is a great American dreamer. Stars and stripes pulsate through this authentic product of California. Artefacts of this technicolour world are scattered throughout his studio. Like two well crafted canoes, a pair of size fifteen dress shoes destined for the feet of a New Knick's baller float on the wood floor are joined by a battered and well weathered trunk belonging to Sylvester Stallone that the actor had hoped would be transformed into footwear fabulousness, whilst a mood board of leathers provoke daydreams for the sole of Janelle Monae grace the wall.

"Tommy used to have my whole wall. but as it went in to production it shrank. It started with ten styles, twelve colours and all manner of different leather options. There wasn't a brief. the styles just evolved out of our conversations. We looked at what Tommy does, he does preppy Americana and we explored what we liked and it reduced down to a brogue and a loafer. It was then about making preppy but adding the soul of rock and roll, a little bit rebellious. For example, the perforation on the toe is a really cool design process that mimics the signature plaid pattern of Tommy Hilfiger," adds Esquivel as an interested, ever analytical eye is focussed in on one his experts applying the described touch to the toe of a brogue. His love of the craft is both obvious and infectious.

Having first roamed onto Hilfiger's radar as a Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund finalist in 2009, Equivel was one of ten designers included in an "Americans in Paris" showcase sponsored by Vogue and Tommy Hilfiger 2011 and a friendship blossomed. They are two kindred spirits, each dedicated to their own craft within Americana. Whilst Tommy Hilfiger is a sartorial star bangled banner gently blowing outside the college of preppy, Esquivel's carefully crafted shoes are inherently Californian, rebellious and a little rock 'n roll. It makes for a happy marriage. "He adds a fresh take to timeless pieces. His designs use unique details that give classics an updated look," Hilfiger declares of Esquivel. "Tommy calls it the twist. We've both been transforming the familiar into the exciting in our way for years but it's been fun putting our heads together," adds Esquivel. Every pair is hand-crafted by skilled workers, adding unique and distinctive elements to the styles whilst each is assigned a one-of-a-kind shoe number that’s hand-written on the shoe and its hangtag to make these objects of desire even more desirable. Ten weeks after our visit to the workshop and as their collaboration hits stores global wide, Tommy Hilfiger and George Esquivel sent through my own limited edition brogue.

Delighting in the duality of new and old, expected and unexpected, traditional and modern, the two complimentary world's collide beautifully in a collaboration that sees two prepster staples re-imagined. With antiqued washed leathers, hand punched perforations and contrasting hues, both the humble brogue and loafer are elevated to new heights. The Tommy Hilfiger + Esquivel logo has been burned into the leather using a hot branding iron. Soles and heels are polished individually using layers of polishes and creams. The results are unique but elegant, whimsical yet sophisticated.

Tommy Hilfiger's + Esquivel brogue

Details... Tanned treats

Artfully aged by the climate of Orange County for a few days, George Esquivel's brogues salute the sunshine of California.

Hare Raising

"When I started making shoes I didn’t know the first thing about doing so," Marc Hare begins before taking a sip of wine. As we sit in a quiet corner of an East London bar for an interview feature for Volume 6 of Varon (out on shelves now), we reflect on the whirlwind of success that has continued to fire his footwear label forward. Both the sit down and glass of white are richly deserved. To illustrate the tale behind the evolution of the label we'd like to focus your attention on how the Miller and Orwell have helped define and shape its path. I propose the apt toast of 'He who hares wins' before delving in to the narrative.

Now, Mr. Hare has always a been a work in progress driven by one man's passion and it shows no sign of resting on its well crafted heels. You know the story well. Conceived at a roadside tapas bar in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Andalusia during the summer of 2008, Mr Hare, the brand not the man, was born out of his realisation that there just were not enough shoes in the world that he liked. Thankfully for our feet, he decided to do something about it. From this epiphany it took a mere three hundred and sixty days for his creations to land on the shop floor at Dover Street Market.

"I had nothing to lose when I started the label. The equation was simple, to either build something or sit with nothing. It was an easy decision. I was fortunate because at the time I was thirty seven years old, I had a long history of working in PR, in retail and the commercial side. I had experience in all of the daunting things that people coming out of college face. As I didn't have any other commitments, I was completely and utterly focused on what I was doing and I still am." One step after another, all eyes remain transfixed by Mr. Hare's fancy feet.

"I’ve had to take little steps and learn how to do things and you’ll see that every season we branch out into different little areas." From season to season, there is a constant sense of evolution and at times revolution. One companion from the start, even when Hare was just a man with a dream, was the Miller. The story of this five hold Oxford shoe is the Mr. Hare fairytale. The original Miller began its life sketched in the mind of a frustrated fashion marketeer.

"I worked for a Swedish clothing company who were famous for their skinny tailoring. I had all of their suits but needed a pair of fly black shoes to wear with them. I went to Jerymn Street because I thought I wanted something quite classic but just couldn't find what I had in mind. I wanted something sharper. At the time I didn't know that I'd be the person to fill the gap, but I left the street knowing that such a gap existed. Ultimately The Miller was my answer, a straight forward classic shoe with contemporary lines. It wasn't so stuffy that it had to stick to the rules. A classic Oxford has certain characteristics already so it was all about adjusting them to just how I wanted." Mr. Hare might not have a formal design background but he is a lover, a tweaker, an alchemist.

"I liken the process to mixing your favourite cocktail, you have the recognisable ingredients and then just make it how you want. At the time, there were so many shoes that had massive toe springs and I just found them to be utterly hideous. The toe spring was the thing to be removed, we then elongated it further because I didn't want it to appear stubby in any way and to ensure it was as elegant as it could

be." See a snapshot of the shake-up behind the Miller below.

The evolution of the Miller.

As much as I admire the fruits of Mr. Hare's work in constant progress that is the Miller, it is their old friend the Orwell. The Orwell has shape shifted and morphed into a number of label favourites. The handsome family. "Along with the Miller, the Orwell has stood the test of time. Every iteration of the Orwell looks fantastic and it has spawned the King Tubby and the Genet, it has many, many children whilst the Miller is pretty much the original,we've added colours, used different leathers and stiffened up the sole but essentially it is the same shoe." Take a closer look at a few of the famous offspring of the Orwell family album below...

From Orwell to Stingray Orwell to all manner of King Tubby.

Hare is not a man that stands still and once again the Miller, mirrors the man. "It's the shoe that we treat like a Dunk or an Air Force 1, the challenge is coming every season with a fresh, new Miller. The amount of directions that you can take it in and the things that you can do with it is really pleasing. If I cut my whole company down to a one pair, it would have to be the Miller and we'd still have a company that you could run forever and ever and ever."

From daydreams to designs, firsts to the lasts, everything was made in the UK. "Up to that point it was very much a British point of view. For me and it's well documented, England makes the best quality, toughest shoes in the world but at the same time, it's very difficult to go to an English factory as a nobody with an idea and to get it made at the price you need. That's still the case now. So I went to Italy because I could. Now I go to Italy as often as I can. During the sampling process, I'm there every two weeks for about three months. I used to go quite sporadically but now that I've got sales staff and general managers, I can spend longer and hope to have periods where I'm out there full time. Even just six months ago, there was myself and James. Two guys running everything. Just like at the very beginning, where I could just concentrate on the product, now that the infrastructure is there I can concentrate on it again and push it even more. With everything that we've learned, the product that's out in a years time should be next level. Ultimately, my aim is to one day by a factory in Northampton and drag it in to the twenty first century and actually get a truly modern British shoe company going again" Hare's relationships with the master craftsmen of Tuscany are thriving but as ever, he's looking ahead. Out of breath, we'll be trying to keep up with this Hare raising talent and remember.. he who Hares wins.