Churchill's shoes

[bengal-stripe]

Good old Sir Winston liked his footwear quite flashy; Python slippers are hardly the classic English understatement. Taken from the Churchill archives:

CHAR 1/283/41\tLetter from Peal & Co. to WSC, confirming receipt of order for two pairs of Python all round slippers.\t23 Aug 1935

CHAR 1/315/47\tAccount from Peal & Co., London, 14s 6d, for repair of slippers.\t13 Feb 1937


There used to be another correspondence with Peal in the archive (which I cannot find anymore) where WSC (or his secretary) complained that the firm had used the wrong type of leather, as the new shoes "drew his feet excessively" (made them sweat, I presume) and the subsequent reply of the company.

After this event, maybe he changed makers as George Cleverley lays claim to Churchill as customer as well. This must have been in the days when Cleverley worked for the firm of Tuczek in Clifford Street, as he did not set up his own business until 1958.

Maybe Churchill was quite a promiscuous shoe client and employed the services of other London makers as well.

 

[jcusey]

After this event, maybe he changed makers as George Cleverley lays claim to Churchill as customer as well. This must have been in the days when Cleverley worked for the firm of Tuczek in Clifford Street, as he did not set up his own business until 1958.

Flusser's Style and the Man has the following in the entry for GJ Cleverley (p. 174):

After seeing Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a pair of Cleverley's monogrammed velvet slippers, Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower rang up the shoemaker and asked him to "make me a pair just like Winnie's."

That doesn't sound at all like Ike to me, but there it is.

 

[Bic Pentameter]

A promiscuous shoe client, Bengal Stripe?

Ouch... I'd hate for my past shoe history to get out. I might get a reputation for being loose. For what it is worth, I almost always wear socks....

Bic

 

[HRHAndrew]

I might get a reputation for being loose. For what it is worth, I almost always wear socks....

That's what we like to hear... Being loose but with protection.