A handsome shoe or a comfortable one? Bernhard Roetzel clears up the legends about bespoke shoes, from the idea of perfect comfort to whether form and function rule each other out.
Jacket, suit, coat or trousers? For a first bespoke commission Bernhard Roetzel recommends a jacket, with arguments on cloth choice, versatility, and whether you go to a tailor for a special occasion or to fill a gap in the wardrobe.
Luca Rubinacci, third generation of the Neapolitan house Rubinacci, runs his atelier in Milan. A crumpled Borsalino, 342,000 Instagram followers and an apprenticeship at Kilgour on Savile Row: a portrait of the style icon of bespoke culture.
Ignatious Joseph, one of the world's best-known shirt designers, on the yellow shirt boxes, the multicoloured shirts with their wide high collar, and the red bespoke shoes he tells people, with a straight face, are from Aldi.
During Pitti Uomo in January 2024 Bernhard Roetzel watches Pascal Zimmer of Luxembourg, of the outfitter Basics and Bespoke, try on his bespoke shoes by Vivian Saskia Wittmer. On the fitting as a small ceremony between maker and customer.
Munich-born master tailor Kathrin Emmer has been cutting bespoke suits in Potsdam for twenty years, for clients from across Germany. A visit to her studio in a quiet detached house near Griebnitzsee, the doorbell sign reads simply Emmer.
The first fitting is pure tension, for customer and tailor alike. Bernhard Roetzel sits in on a fitting with Markus Schnurr in a Stuttgart flat and describes what happens when the half-finished suit is on the body for the first time.
A famous house or an affordable newcomer? Bernhard Roetzel explains what first-time clients should look for when choosing a bespoke tailor, why price says little about quality, and how much the maker's own appearance really matters.
Bernhard Roetzel orders a double-stitched one-piece in the Haferl style from Munich specialist Schuh Bertl. The distinctive feature: the leather insole actively supports the foot, with no removable orthopaedic insert.
Bernhard Roetzel visits Enis Inci and Rovschan Gambarov at Sartoria Napoletana in Istanbul's Nişantaşı district, a classic menswear shop with green wallpaper and an English feel, run by two men with deep Italian connections.
Bernhard Roetzel collects his bespoke suit from Dawid Kukliński in Berlin, cut from a mid-grey Holland & Sherry covert in the now-discontinued Dakota bundle, a cloth he had wanted to wear for more than twenty years.
Berlin-based bespoke shoemaker Korbinian Ludwig Heß has launched a wooden shoe-care box stocked with Saphir products. In conversation he explains why sparing application matters and how cream and wax paste complement each other.
