Dear Mr Hare.
I know the short lived problem of yellowing no longer applies to Jerry Lee Shoes due to change of leather but still I must share with you. At seventeen I went barefoot for a year in Lancashire. “Bet you can’t do that in the snow” was all anyone could say. I waited and I did step barefoot in the snow and learned a lesson for life. It’s been a long walk from those barefoot days in Lancashire to the soul of your footwear. M
y first and only pair of MR Hare are your glorious Jerry Lee’s. I bought them last July and walked tall. They feel like a woman’s sliding her hand around each foot at each step.
I love them so much I haven’t worn them. Why keep what you love in a box. A fashion head once said “darling why not dress your best all the time”. She’s right so I opened the box yesterday on World Book Night (think the briefcase scene in Pulp Fiction) then I slid the white cloth from Jerry and Lee but here the tale takes a twist: a conspicuous yellow line has appeared in front of the broguing. So I quickly open the search engine and find the fine stitching of your words “Some of you Dandies are not the most romantic people, but I listened and I acted. The new Jerry Lee is made entirely from chrome tanned, colour stable calf leather. This means the shoe you bought in the store will be the same shoe you find in the box, every time you rock them.”
I love a bit of truth at the heart of a product – a pearl aglet. It’s like finding the anis seed in the middle of
an aniseed gob stopper. I have love for you Mr Hare. I don’t know what to do. Do I bring them back to you or do I stay “romantic” and keep them? The first time I wear them will be this week. They’re something perfectly flawed like me?
Open declaration: Shoes bought in sample sale for £250. Sale price is £450. Anyone in fashion knows a sample sale is “sold on sight”. Also The short lived problem of yellowing no longer applies to Jerry Lee Shoes. So should I remove this blog?
So here’s the issue. I chose to make the Jerry Lee from Vachetta which is a vegetable tanned leather from one of Italy’s most reputable vegetable tanneries. The reason being an ethical one. Vegetable tanned leather uses natural tannin ingredients which are less harmful to the environment and produce a leather which ages more naturally. http://www.pellealvegetale.it/en/skin.htm Vegetable tanned leather is known for the unique patina it forms giving every piece more individuality and character through its unique colouring. So the Jerry Lee being a nostalgic shoe, I thought would only be enhanced by the natural characteristics of vegetable tanned leathers. Romantic fool I am. However, I soon found out that people don’t like ethics getting in the way of aesthetics. Even when I tell them that eventually the yellowing will spread across the whole white area of the shoe and even the blue part will discolour in accordance with the natural tendencies of vachetta, giving the whole shoe a natural vintage look, they still want the box fresh look they had at purchase. No one is prepared to stick by their Jerry Lee as it goes through it’s tricky teenage transformation from hot young thing to beautiful old thing. So now I have had to ditch the Vachetta and return to normal chemically chrome tanned leather which holds it’s colour come rain or shine, even if one day rain and shine cease as a result.
Not everyone was impatient though. Look how awesome Jefferson Hacks old Jerry Lees look having been given the time to age gracefully. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://cache4.asset-cache.net/xc/115087371-courtney-love-and-jefferson-hack-attend-the-wireimage.jpg%3Fv%3D1%26c%3DIWSAsset%26k%3D2%26d%3D77BFBA49EF87892140FEB0FF7845C57DD7E5DAAE5CFA0C04B9C4DA3D054031A769540F199D0FD23CE30A760B0D811297&imgrefurl=http://www.wireimage.com/celebrity-pictures/Courtney-Love-and-Jefferson-Hack-attend-the-Hogan-And-Big-Bambu/115087371&h=594&w=395&sz=205&tbnid=g_map5NRTtfF2M:&tbnh=105&tbnw=70&zoom=1&usg=__pi0YMsX3YJODDWmE2GWWOpnh5rM=&docid=zdyNNmUUdMlQNM&itg=1&sa=X&ei=-Hd_UZ-MLImBOKi3gKAC&ved=0CDwQ9QEwAw&dur=1628
I am wearing them tonight. As they are. So I’ve had them with me all day. I’ve been in meetings Soho Charing Cross, SOuthbank . I like a bit of serendipity me. I am writing this mail in the quiet hour I have before I wear them to White Cube in Bermondsey for the launch party an incredible Ethiopian American artist called Julie Mehretu. Then we will go onwards for a meal at Shoreditch House. It is a dream awakening of my shoes…. because….. wearing Jerry Lees tonight was chosen randomly at 5am this morning when I woke (probably lodged in sub conscious last night) and it happens to be on the day of the response to which I’m replying. Which I happened to have read one hour before stepping into the Jerry Lees which I’ve had with me since setting out on my bikeat 9am. They’ll carry me into White Cube and onwards. I like me a bit of serendipity. That’s how my life is. Thanks man . Peas and West Dishes Lemn
This is a picture of our times and a graceful one at that, we perfect and perfect and lose our souls – that jingling joy, the very thing we strive for, but can not buy down the cracks. I want to be patinated. Please. x