2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

@Gem-gem - no coupons needed for repairs - re-soling is excellent!

I wonder if Russell & Bromley would re-sole the knee-high riding boots I still have, bought from them in about 1994... come to that a pair of little flat lace-up ankle-boots from earlier in the 1990s...  

florianatwobob

All this talk of resolving footwear makes me think I’ve been so out of step (excuse the pun) most of my life. 

My mum’s dad was a shoemaker and repairer (he died long before I arrived but I’m told he hated to be called a cobbler, such an insult). Anyway once my feet had stopped growing I always got my shoes re-heeled and/or soled. I suppose it’s learnt behaviour. 

My shoe repairer has recently done a lovely job on repairing and resoleing my Fly L0ndon boots. My extra bendy feet had caused a hole to form where the leather joined the sole. Now invisibly patched and good as new with ‘tractor soles’. 

Laura_Elsewhere

florianatwobob said:

All this talk of resolving footwear makes me think I’ve been so out of step (excuse the pun) most of my life. 

My mum’s dad was a shoemaker and repairer (he died long before I arrived but I’m told he hated to be called a cobbler, such an insult). Anyway once my feet had stopped growing I always got my shoes re-heeled and/or soled. I suppose it’s learnt behaviour. 

My shoe repairer has recently done a lovely job on repairing and resoleing my Fly L0ndon boots. My extra bendy feet had caused a hole to form where the leather joined the sole. Now invisibly patched and good as new with ‘tractor soles’. 

I still wear boots I bought in 1984 when I was 15 - they had developed slightly wobbly heels, but the brilliant shoe-repairer on Castle Foregate at Shrewsbury fixed that two years back and charged me so little that I popped back in next time I was over and gave him some more cash because I felt so guilty... 

For general purposes, I do my own cobbling these days because there isn't anyone locally - I put new rubber soles on shoes, heavy-duty 'hiking' type soles and heels on boots, and I use Blakey's non-metal segs on shoe- and some boot-heels so that I rarely need to replace heels. I buy supplies online and use Klebfest cobblers' glue... nothing remotely like the skilled work your dad would have done, but it means I have comfortable dry warm feet... 

florianatwobob

@Laura_Elsewhere I’m so hard on my footwear I need the professionals!  😉🤣 I had to coach him though into repairing a pair of high heels. I’d snapped the pin that goes into the heel and lost the tip. We tried glueing a tip on and I kicked that off in 5 mins (awkward as I had to spend the day with a Marilyn Monroe wiggle in a Dept of men). He eventually had to drill the pin out and replace the pin and tip but was worried about shattering the heel and not being able
to replace like for like . The deciding comment was when I said I couldn’t wear them anyway and we could always replace with a plainer heel. 

He was successful in his drilling. 

MrsCD

What pretty shoes! 😊

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Adore the colours of your shoes florianatwobob 🙂

florianatwobob

Mrs_Salad_Dodger said:

Adore the colours of your shoes florianatwobob 🙂

MrsCD said:

What pretty shoes! 😊

Thank you both. If you look closely they have swans on the outside uppers round the heel  

florianatwobob

Slightly naughtily one of my male colleagues used to tell me i was wearing ‘follow me shoes’. He managed to be flirtily funny rather than creepy with his comments. 

TwibbleDee

florianatwobob said:

Slightly naughtily one of my male colleagues used to tell me i was wearing ‘follow me shoes’. He managed to be flirtily funny rather than creepy with his comments. 

I’ve kicked people for less.     Not for a while, though.

Somebody I used to hang out with in high school still swears that I had steel-toed boots.  I did not.

Liverpool_Anne

@TwibbleDee, that's my reaction too