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Nikolaus Tuczek was a renowned shoemaker whose name pops up occasionally on menswear sites and forum discussions. Despite his masterful skill and chiseled lasts, Tuczek’s legacy is known by far too few. This cordwainer to the privileged was born to a family of Austro-Hungarian immigrants and amassed his knowledge in London, serving its finest legs for several decades. His firm’s history is sadly not as documented as the likes of Lobb Ltd. and I’ve seen scarce contemporary pictures of the firm’s display windows or pairs. Active menswear enthusiasts certainly know GJC and G&G, but fewer know that both makers have drawn from the fountainhead that was Tuczek. His name has escaped most rakes, now’s the time to change that.

G.J. Cleverley worked under Tuczek’s watchful eye for 38 years before opening his own firm in London. What’s more, Tony Gaziano and Dean Girling both spent nearly a decade at Cleverley’s before launching the latest English shoe factory, Gaziano&Girling. I believe both Cleverley and G&G best represent the ethos that was born from Tuczek’s hands: sleek, contoured, close-fitting, chiselled and slender footwear. Somewhat effeminate but always proper. More than anything Tuczezk had a masterful sense of proportion. The late master made the most wonderful chiseled toes and lasts closer to wooden sculptures than mere tools of the trade. Sole stitching was dense, welts trimmed close, a ram’s head brogue medallion was common. Leather soles had contoured waists and understated finishing, shoe trees were hollowed and close-fitting — all characteristics that G&G and GJC share today, with the exception of the former’s aggressive waist shaping and eccentric designs. Tuzcek was open for some of the more whimsical wishes, too. The elastic alligator shoes with a brogue medallion on the instep, pictured at the bottom of this post, is proof of this.

In his column for Cigar Aficionado’s Winter 1994/1995 issue, G. Bruce Boyer recounts the following story with John Hlustik, who bought and revived the Edward Green factory in 1982:

“Just the other week a gentleman came into the shop for some new shoes. He was wearing a pair made by Tuczek in the early 1940s. They were so marvellous, I asked him if he would sell them to me…offered him $3,500. He refused, and I can’t say I blame him. After 50 years, they had an absolutely vintage classicism about them.”

Back in the 80’s, $3500 had quite a bit more purchasing power than today. This comes to show how wanted and rare Tuczek pairs had become by then, even more so today among collectors and cordwainers who keep a small museum. I have searched for pairs on eBay every once in a while, and most items sell for closer to $1000. As the firm is defunct, no new pairs can be made. I feel the pairs still intact should be displayed in shoe museums or as part of collections, certainly not worn.

For dating vintage pairs, Nikolaus Tuczek has worked in these premises:

24 Arthur Street, Oxford Street, 1853-1855

24 High Street, St Giles’s, 1856-1861

109 New Bond Street, 1862-1886

39 Old Bond Street, 1887-1903

15B Clifford Street, 1904-1937

17 Clifford Street, 1938-1966

21 Jermyn Street, 1966-1969

Around 1970 the firm was taken over by Lobb Ltd., who have honoured the late master by naming a current sample model after him. The side-laced pair is called Elastic Sided with Plain Tuczek Style Elastic – (SS597). Apart from the strong chisel toe, Tuckzek’s firm is rememberd for its eccentric elastic shoe model. This model allows the shoes to be taken off and put on faster than laced pairs, while still retaining proper support and comfort. Although a rare sight today, the model is most common in Japan, where shoes are removed for house visits and the elastic detail is helpful. A current online search with Tuczek’s name comes up with many discussions about the late firm, implying that, although the man may be gone, he is somewhat remembered and his influence lives on. As is good and proper.

If the reader owns a pair of Tuzceks, I urge him to contact me and send along some pictures. The pairs still intact should be seen.

Pictures: © original uploaders

“My father was something of a dude and he tought me to dress to the limit of my pocketbook. He liked to point out that no man could help the shape of his profile, but that the cut of his trousers and the fit of his coat were something he himself could control, and that often others judged him entirely by his appearance. In the acting business this is especially true. Even when an actor is broke, hungry, and out of a job, he must put on a bold front. When he goes in search of a job, he must trim his frayed cuffs with an old razor blade, carefully press his best suit and shine his own shoes in order to appear prosperous.”

~ Adolphe Menjou in his polished biography It Took Nine Tailors

“…As for Clothing, to come at once to the practical part of the question, perhaps we are led oftener by the love of novelty and a regard for the opinions of men, in procuring it, than by a true utility. Let him who has work to do recollect that the object of clothing is, first, to retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this state of society, to cover nakedness, and he may judge how much of any necessary or important work may be accomplished without adding to his wardrobe.

Kings and queens who wear a suit but once, though made by some tailor or dressmaker to their majesties, cannot know the comfort of wearing a suit that fits. They are no better than wooden horses to hang the clean clothes on. Every day our garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the wearer’s character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without such delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our bodies. No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience. But even if the rent is not mended, perhaps the worst vice betrayed is improvidence. I sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests as this — Who could wear a patch, or two extra seams only, over the knee? Most behave as if they believed that their prospects for life would be ruined if they should do it. It would be easier for them to hobble to town with a broken leg than with a broken pantaloon.

Often if an accident happens to a gentleman’s legs, they can be mended; but if a similar accident happens to the legs of his pantaloons, there is no help for it; for he considers, not what is truly respectable, but what is respected. We know but few men, a great many coats and breeches. Dress a scarecrow in your last shift, you standing shiftless by, who would not soonest salute the scarecrow?”

~ Henry David Thoreau in Walden