Archibald London: true craftsmanship, no middlemen, Official Vendor Thread

[ArchibaldLondon]

Hi everyone,

We’re really excited to become an affiliate of the forum, we’ve been learning from the Styleforum community for some time now and wanted to start off with a massive thank you for your insights and feedback

The forum really feels like a natural home for us because it’s a space that appreciates the value of quality items as expressed through craftsmanship, beautiful materials and timeless design. Here’s a little bit of background and some introductions on our end:

I’m Rohan, the founder of Archibald London. We started off as Archibald Optics, the world’s first direct to consumer brand in luxury eyewear, offering frames handmade by Takumi masters in Sabae Japan and challenging low grade eyewear from other direct to consumer players. Then a couple of years ago, we realised we were doing ourselves a disservice by offering just one category of product. Ultimately, what we had was an idea for an entirely different approach to luxury retail which could be applied to almost any item. It’s simple to us: find the best people to make a traditionally restricted luxury product, use the best materials, then sell it online with no middlemen at fairer prices. We know that sounds like a pitch you’ve heard before- but our x factor comes down to our emphasis on the product, the makers, the places and the materials.

Over the past 24 months we’ve developed into new categories including:

• Knitwear from Italy and Scotland
• Leather goods from Spain and Italy
• Hand-welted dress shoes, made in Italy
• Casual leather footwear, also made in Italy
• Homeware (from Japanese carbon steel knives to solid Scottish cashmere throws)
• Raw Selvege denim, woven in Japan
• Leather jackets, hand-stitched in east London, England

… and much more!

We’re excited to answer any questions you have for us about our products and get some insight from you on new launches, as well as product development. Ultimately, you are the people who will really understand what we are working on and the value of quality over anything else.

Below are a few images of our hand-welted shoes to get the ball rolling, as well as a video of our Italian craftsman Alessandro demonstrating how he does his hand welting.

Cheers,

Rohan

The Hand-Welted Cap Toe Oxford Shoes

The Hand-Welted Brogue Oxford Shoes

The Hand-Welted Anticato Squared Penny Loafers - Last 001


The Hand-Welted Classic Penny Loafers - Last 002

The Hand-Welted Anticato Derby Shoes (above and below)

 

[crazn]

welcome to SF

 

[tcbinnc]

Rohan. Welcome as an affiliate! I look forward to learning about your product line.

 

[Betelgeuse]

Welcome!

 

[psb]

Welcome to SF. The shoes look very inspiring.

 

[ArchibaldLondon]

welcome to SF

Cheers!

 

[ArchibaldLondon]

Rohan. Welcome as an affiliate! I look forward to learning about your product line.

Thanks very much, we're happy to be here and answer any and all questions!

 

[ArchibaldLondon]

Welcome!

Thanks!

 

[ArchibaldLondon]

Welcome to SF. The shoes look very inspiring.

We're glad you like them and thanks for the warm welcome. Out of curiosity, what's your dress shoe of choice?

 

[psb]

We're glad you like them and thanks for the warm welcome. Out of curiosity, what's your dress shoe of choice?

Your captoe oxford looks great. Until now i mainly have Dinkelacker shoes.

 

[Lancaster]

Welcome! I like sleek shoes and I have the foot shape that can tolerate narrow lasts, so O liked the shape of the Oxford bit I liked the finish of the anticato.

My Italian being limited to nothing, I wasn't sure what the import of the video you posted was. In short, what's your take on the advantage of hand welting?

 

[ArchibaldLondon]

Your captoe oxford looks great. Until now i mainly have Dinkelacker shoes.

We love the captoe oxfords, they were actually our first pair we designed in collaboration with our craftsmen. What about Dinkelacker shoes do you value most? We're always keen to get an insight into what shoe aficionados look out for!

 

[psb]

What about Dinkelacker shoes do you value most? We're always keen to get an insight into what shoe aficionados look out for!

Dinkelacker shoes are fully hand made, the quality is perfect and they only produce about 35 pairs a day, which grants exclusivity. On the other hand, the variety of their oxford-style models is very limited, so its good to know alternatives.

 

[ArchibaldLondon]

Welcome! I like sleek shoes and I have the foot shape that can tolerate narrow lasts, so O liked the shape of the Oxford bit I liked the finish of the anticato.

My Italian being limited to nothing, I wasn't sure what the import of the video you posted was. In short, what's your take on the advantage of hand welting?

Thank you, pleased to be here! We actually do have the cap toe oxford in anticato as well: https://www.archibaldlondon.com/col...ptoe-anticato-oxford-shoes?color=anticato-tan

In terms of hand-welting and the advantages of it: we learned more about that through both our craftsmen and a styleforum thread dedicated to the subject. The crux of it is that in order to be able to hand welt a shoe, you need to use high quality materials like vegetable tanned leather of a certain thickness that can withstand channels being cut into it for the holdfast, where the stitches are driven through by hand. Our craftsmen have also explained that the combination of hand-welting and high quality materials mean that our shoes can be re-soled up to 12 times, significantly more than the standard 3-6 you can get out of shoes that are machine-welted. Here's a link to our blog covering our journey into understanding the distinction and the value of hand-welting.

 

[Lancaster]

Thank you, pleased to be here! We actually do have the cap toe oxford in anticato as well: https://www.archibaldlondon.com/col...ptoe-anticato-oxford-shoes?color=anticato-tan

In terms of hand-welting and the advantages of it: we learned more about that through both our craftsmen and a styleforum thread dedicated to the subject. The crux of it is that in order to be able to hand welt a shoe, you need to use high quality materials like vegetable tanned leather of a certain thickness that can withstand channels being cut into it for the holdfast, where the stitches are driven through by hand. Our craftsmen have also explained that the combination of hand-welting and high quality materials mean that our shoes can be re-soled up to 12 times, significantly more than the standard 3-6 you can get out of shoes that are machine-welted. Here's a link to our blog covering our journey into understanding the distinction and the value of hand-welting.

Thanks! I took a look at your website and I like the design and layout a lot! It has some real personality which is unusual. I like your bravery in revealing your margins, but I have to ask why is your markup on the dress shoes at such a higher percentage than on your other products?