Keikari.com

VR: Your age and occupation?

RN: I am 31 years old and my occupation is Owner/Director at Made by Nichols.

VR:Your educational background?

With fellow artisan Yohei Fukuda

VR: Have you any children or spouse (and how do they relate to your leather enthusiasm)?

VR: …and your parents and siblings’ reactions back when you first decided to go for this job?

VR: How did you first become interested in artisanal goods, and when did you turn your eyes towards leather working? Why this material over others?

VR:How have you gathered your knowledge of the trade — from books, in-house training, workshops or somewhere else?

From Nat Boyd I moved on to work at Dunhill London’s bespoke workshop. This is where, I believe, I learned the true level of luxury and handcrafted products. When I joined, there was a small team of master craftspeople all of whom had decades of knowledge and experience of traditional and also modern luxury leather craft. My manager had previously worked for Yves Saint Laurent and Hermès and the two senior craftspeople I was working with had been at Dunhill, previously known as Tanner Krolle, each for more than 10 years. Working with such skilled and knowledgeable artisans was incredible, the focus at the time of my arrival was the manufacturing of their traditional top frame briefcase, ‘The Worsley’. Learning how to make such a product that consists of all aspects of luxury leather crafting from hand burnishing the edge with a burnishing mitten to hand stitching the frame and handle pushed my skills to a new level. I am indebted to the team at Dunhill for the time and knowledge they shared with me.

After my time at Dunhill, I was approached by Simpson’s London who were building a new state of the art factory in London with the intention to reboot the English leather crafting industry. Simpson’s products share many similarities to the products I was making at Dunhill, such as using English bridle hides and hand stitching, so it made for a desirable opportunity. After a year working at Simpson’s I was made senior craftsperson and put in charge of one of their departments, the medium leather goods section where we made briefcases, messenger bags and travel bags. Working at Simpson’s was a fantastic opportunity because they also manufactured products for other luxury brands. This meant the work was varied and gave myself and my team the chance to try out and learn new making techniques.

VR:Please describe how your company was born and what goals you set for yourself in the beginning. How have you been received so far?

VR: Who or what inspires you?

I also take huge inspiration from the Japanese approach to crafting where each individual detail is meticulously considered. In recent times I have become friends with Japanese luxury shoemaker Yohei Fukuda and he has given me some great advice with where best to position my products. For design inspiration, as many of my products have traditional silhouettes, I can certainly admit that I have taken inspiration from past works but I also look towards the new requirements of tech gadgets and how best to house them whilst maintaining simplistic designs. Brands like Tumi, who are not notably famous for stylish design, certainly inspire me with their use of pockets and compartments.

The rise of instagram has definitely provided us all with a plethora of fantastically dressed men. Andreas Weinas is one of my favourite online influencers with his smart casual styles and also formal attire choices; as is Fabio Attonasio of The Bespoke Dudes and Simon Crompton of Permanent Style.

Away from the industry, I take a lot of inspiration from architecture, much of my work uses strong clean cut lines and this is often down to my surroundings in London. The Albert Bridge in Battersea where I live has provided me with many of the shapes in my pieces as have the skyscapers in Cannary Wharf where I have spent a lot of time. Because of my industry experience, I feel I have the ability not only to design products that my clients desire but also to withstand the test of time. Having been fortunate enough to work with the brands and craftspeople that I have, it has taught me the best ways to reinforce and make my products strong and durable which in some of the mass production factories often gets overlooked. I want my products to age well with my clients and to support them on their travels or as they go about their daily tasks.

VR: Why should Keikari’s readers choose you over other British leather artisans?

RN: When selecting luxury leather goods and accessories it’s always difficult to know who to choose; I’d recommend one of my products over many of the other brandsout there because I can customise any of them to your requirements. None of my designs are set in stone and if you require your own personal pocket insert, material choice or leather choice, my past experience within the industry gives me fantastic access to many world-renowned suppliers as well as unknown gems of which many other smaller brands don’t usually offer. I frequently receive messages from fellow craftspeople enquiring about my suppliers but these are sacred and have taken years to collate, so I do not hand them out.

VR: What’s your definition of style?

RN: Style is all about details and how you edit looks to your personality. In the sector that I have focused my products on, men’s style as well as my own is all about tailored fits set off with accessories, such as watches, shoes, and choice jewellery. The more time I spend around quality products, the more I want my attire to be entirely selected. It’s difficult to be stylish from head to toe everyday but, for me, a decent pair of shoes or boots, combined with my every day jewellery (two silver rings and a single bangle) along with a well-fitted pair of trousers and a woollen top works well.

VR: Finally, have you any tips for identifying quality leather and make?

RN: After spending a long time working with leather as my creative medium, my first characteristic when selecting leather is, how does it feel to the touch? Whether it’s vegetable tanned of chrome tanned, I will always expect the surface to have some kind of wax/oil feel. Dry, rigid skins are a sign of being dried too quickly using heaters or not being left in the tanning drums long enough to properly absorb the dyes. A poor quality leather will almost certainly begin to crack or break far sooner than a well finished, properly tanned hide.

https://www.madebynichols.com

BESNARD is a Dutch menswear company that has its roots back in 1878. That’s when a certain master tailor Albert Besnard set up a shop with a specialisation in court livery. A. Besnard Tailleur plied its trade in The Hague. In the beginning, most of the business came from the nearby Dutch Royal Palace, later on numerous servants and diplomats connected to the regime walked through the door. The times they were a-changin’, though, and Albert had no one to continue or buy the family business, so the store stopped trading after some four decades in business. Fast forward a century, and the master tailor’s great-great-grandson, Victor, found a suit made by the old store. Though Victor Besnard is not an artisan, and his trade is strategy consultancy, he has experience in the field of menswear and from a tailor shop. Thus, the grandson decided to revive the name and set up a business that caters to classic pieces.

As Victor puts it, “I started working in menswear when I was 17 and continued until I started my career as a strategy consultant after college. My time at a luxury multi-brand store sparked my passion for classic menswear, and working at a bespoke tailor resulted in a ‘healthy’ obsession for tailoring and craftsmanship. It wasn’t until long after I started working as a consultant that I missed working with clothing. It was around the same time that I found a bespoke suit made by my great-great-grandfather, at that moment I decided to revive Besnard. It is definitely my ambition to grow the brand to a level where I can make a living from it. Currently, I work 4 days per week in consulting to cover the investment for new products and pay the rent. The rest of my time is dedicated to Besnard.”

BESNARD is run by one man, with occasional help from his wife, and former colleagues in tailoring helped with patterns and samples in the development phase. The company’s target group are men aged 30 to 50 who appreciate craftsmanship or certain designs or details. Trust is an important value for Victor Besnard: in his mind, clothes should be simple in design, have a high quality, and last a long time. They shouldn’t change too much in model or fit from year to year. Countless startup clothing companies have risen up in the 2000s, and standing out from so many others is a challenge. One option is to produce RTW-pieces which take their inspiration and features from bespoke tailoring.

Says Victor: “movies and pictures from ’50s and ’60s are a tremendous inspiration for me. It is fascinating to observe how men dressed at those times. I am a big fan of the ’60s Ivy League look and the design of my button-down shirts was heavily inspired by vintage OCBDs. However, my fit is a bit slimmer to make it more contemporary. In addition, I am very passionate about classic menswear and tailoring. I noticed that the bespoke suits worn by movie stars such as Cary Grant and Sean Connery had a certain masculinity in them. One of the reasons is the higher waist of their trousers, which visually lengthens the legs and shortens the torso, leading to a more masculine sense of proportion. This is something I also wanted to achieve with my trousers. Finally, I am an admirer of the soft unconstructed Neapolitan tailoring. Developing a tailoring line is a time consuming and costly investment, so unfortunately that must wait. This month I am launching a line of untipped ties with hand-rolled edges, in grenadine, shantung and hand-printed silks.”

BESNARD has chosen its manufacturers according to their quality and specialisation. As an example, only some shirt factories use English seams (also known as single-needle tailoring) and some tie makers offer hand-rolled edges. The company also uses unique designs which limits the range of white label manufacturers. The fabrics and materials come from mills which also supply tailors and high-end factories. As for the designs and value, the designer opines: “I think that passion is an important part which makes BESNARD different. The devil is in the details, and I care about every detail. Because little things can make a huge difference; the position of the buttons to ensure a nice collar roll, the difference between the front rise and back rise of a trouser pattern or simply the balance of the width of a shirt placket and the amount of millimeters the stitching is from the edge.”

www.besnard.co

Much has been said, and written, about G.J. Cleverley’s bespoke shoes, likely most by the mouths and pens of men who’ve never owned a pair. There is no substitute for first-hand experience, so I took it upon myself to grab a pair from the endless selection of eBay. The gamble was with sizing and this cannot be avoided with bespoke pairs. As luck would have it, these shoes were made by old man George himself.

This I deduce from the pair’s sockliner which features Cleverley’s old address on Cork Street. A short message to the company and back confirmed that GJC moved away from those premises some 40 years ago. Cleverley was alive and well-heeled back them, so this pair gives Keikari’s reader an interesting look at what made his reputation so grand. It would have been swell to look at the shoe trees too, but they didn’t last long enough to come with the pair.

Today’s example pair is an elastic shoe made in the Tuczek-style from alligator leather. A short look at Keikari’s archives will remind the reader why that name is important. Cleverley and John Lobb Ltd. still market a few pairs in this style as Tuczeks. As Cleverley apprenticed and worked at Tuczek’s, his models were very much inspired by the legendary Nikolaus.

This pair doesn’t have that “suspiciously chiseled toe” that Cleverley has become known for. Instead we have a softly square one. The single leather sole is light and has a rounded, narrow waist, and the heels disappear under the heelcup delicately. Both display nothing that sets them apart from other West-End shoemakers. The welt, on the other hand, is cut extremely close and has very clean stitching that nearly disappears into the fudging.

The heelcups look oddly straight from the back, but the side profile is nicely rounded. The leather stiffeners inside are firm at the bottom but nearly disappear higher up. The elastic is, as the name suggests, very elastic and has an interesting light blue colour on the inside. The lining seems to be made from the kind of leather used for uppers, but it changes into linen at the front of the pair. For no reason I can come up with, the sockliners lack foam padding entirely.

The upper stitching is dense and neat all around. The alligator hides are simply stupendous. There is no cracking, very little creasing, and no scuffs at all. The hides feel soft and had a strong shine even before cream and polish. The scales at the back of the pair, on the other hand, don’t match the small and round belly cuts at the front. Looking online on the GJC website, this choice seems to be their norm still in the 2020s. The back scales are larger and square.

Finally, a word on the lasts. The proportions and form of the pair look very clean, very smart, and (to use that bland word) timeless. The shoes are some half a century old but have no shapes or lines that deter. To put this all in a single word, these feel proper. All this would have appealed to the British gentry who, of course, wanted to look and feel apart from the hoi polloi but didn’t want to attract the wrong kinds of looks.

While the proper appearance was the thing, I’m unsure how alligator fit into the  equation. I’d like to think that the pair was commissioned by an eccentric chap who wanted a smart pair for the club, and wore them only on special occasions. The closest RTW-lasts in current would be those created by Edward Green. Their forms look proper and never stick out. In sum, I feel Cleverley earned his reputation by being dependable, within reach, having a high enough quality, attracting the right kind of clients, and offering comfort as well as looks. Yet from what I’ve seen, the company’s shoes were nothing conspicuous, otherworldly or awe-inspiring. Simply proper.