Focus on London Craft Week: Edward Green
St James's Craft Collaboration
Photographs Thom Atkinson
Words Mark Hooper
With over a century of shoemaking expertise, Edward Green still specialise in handmade excellence without compromise…
Still made from their workshop in Northampton – the home of shoemaking – where they have been based for almost 120 years, Edward Green are devoted to the same principles of craftsmanship that their founder, the eponymous Mr Green, first learned as a 12-year-old apprentice.
Craftsmanship is more than a slogan to them. It is, they say, ‘the mastery of techniques passed through the generations, ensuring each shoe is made to the same exacting standards… it may take more time and it may take more effort, but it’s this commitment to meticulous detailing that makes for a shoe of real quality and character.’
Today, over 60 skilled makers work for the company, producing some 350 pairs of shoes a week. Famed for producing the finest English Goodyear Welted footwear, with illustrious past clients including Ernest Hemingway and Edward, the Duke of Windsor, Edward Green continue to represent a very English type of timeless elegance, but using the finest French and Italian calf.
Attention to detail is everything, and no stage of the process is rushed: the soles of each shoe, for instance, are oak-bark tanned for nine months, imbuing an unrivalled comfort and durability. For London Craft Week, Edward Green teamed up with another St James’s-based brand, Hand & Lock, to present a unique demonstration of embroidery techniques – creating unique motifs, crests and monograms on Edward Green’s customisable slippers.