The Solitude of Truth // 真話的清高 - Shoe dissection, stitched blind waist, and the rest - Part 1

 

Cantopop "真話的清高" (The Nobility of Truth), sung by Gigi Yim. She sprang to fame after winning the singing contest organised by TVB, HKSAR, China. This photo is mostly irrelevant to the content of the post. 

Shoe dissection posts are interesting - they allow you to see the material and construction that are so often talked about, touted around, but seldom substantiated. ShoeGazing blog once had a comparison of Loake, Carmina and Paolo Scafora (here). 

Five years later, I still haven't been able to come across a post as informative as above - when it comes to dissecting and verifying various manufacturers' claims. Arguably, the general reluctance and inability of the average consumer to take apart his or her own shoes is conducive to such (shady) mistakes as passing something else as handwelted.  

Meccariello shoes (Instagram, Webshop) have intrigued me for the past few years. I was first introduced to the brand by shoe enthusiasts bamboo and chobochobo. The of course it was like a Pandora's box: once started, it was impossible to stop buying. 

Nevertheless, with a scientific background, @shirtingfantasy has been taught not to believe in others - unless claims are objectively refutable and reasonably verified. Shoe makers make a lot of claims -

1. We use the best part of the hide
2. We use Blake / Goodyear / Norwegian / handwelted / modified handwelted construction
3. We use leather stiffeners
4. We stitch the narrow waist by hand / machine
5. and so forth...

Apart from (1) and (2), which can sometimes be refuted from the outside, e.g. wrinkles and loose grains speak against really good part of the hide, and a total lack of (obvious and hidden) stitching marks would make a stitched construction unlikely. More enthusiast-oriented features, such as "we do blind waist using the time-consuming way, not by nail or glue", or "this is close to handwelted construction, and there is no welt strip and gemming" would be quite impossible to validate from inspection of shoes alone. 

Without further ado, the unprofessional, brutal, and ugly dissection of @shirtingfantasy's first pair of Meccariello shoes* -

* As to why the shoes ended up being dissected, it has something to do with quotas, family harmony etc. and we shall not discuss further

1. It's an office-based procedure. The only tool available was a pair of scissors.

2. Attempted infiltration through the waist weakness - took quite a bit of effort

3. Here one can see the tool used

4. It was nearly impossible to launch an effective attach through the waist alone. As such, an incision was made from the inlet. The calf leather was immediately cut (and torn) through, revealing the lining and some canvas-like material between the upper and lining leather. The toe puff material can be seen more clearly in the next photo.

5. The toe puff is NOT leather. Clarification was sought from Antonio, and he claimed it was "fabric with pasta". I think "pasta" is a typo of "paste", meaning glue. In any case, pasta or paste does not seem more industrialised than Celastic thermoplastic. And @shirtingfantasy can confirm that the material is very sturdy and hard to cut through (consistent with our usual experience of a stuff toe puff).

6. The shoe size was indeed 7.5, although there was no clear reason why the shoes were marked as TEST. In any case, the purpose of this photo is to show how (relatively) easily the heel could be cut - so it was not made with pasta. One can discern the upper (white outer layer), the stiffener (the light brown layers in the middle), and the heel lining suede (the innermost beige layer).The heel stiffener continued all the way to the sides (you can see a bit of that being cut in photo 4).

7. Looking between the insole and the outsole from the waist opening. There is a metal shank (not sure about the material, could be stainless steel - it felt hard and there was no rust). The outsole stitching along the waist were even and tiny - clear evidence of a machine-stitched outsole all the way to the waist (the so-called 270 degrees). The stitching used for the insole-upper connection was some sort of white thread (claimed to be linen, which @shirtingfantasy was not able to verify). There seems to be no gemming, and the "direct leather-to-leather" connection claim seems to be valid.

Unfortunately, the dissection here seems to be of historical importance. While the Argentum welted construction was said to be an innovation (probably similar to JM Weston's method in using a machine to create a rib in the leather insole) to partially industrialise and make handwelted shoes more affordable, due to the breaking down of his machine, Antonio Meccariello has announced the termination of the Argentum-welted line. Due to Brexit and the high cost of repair, Antonio reportedly has no plan of bringing the machine back to life: when the current webstore and retailer stock runs out, no more Argentum welted shoes would be made.

We shall explore the topic of blind waist in the next post. Hopefully @shirtingfantasy would be able to find a non-destructive way of verifying whether a waist is stitched or glued.

Until then, goodbye!

Antica Calzoleria Meccariello

https://www.meccarielloshoes.it

Minimum order: 1 pair

Price range: 

Aeris ("Bronze", Goodyear welted line with glued and nailed waist) - EUR 300 - 400, 

Argentum welted ("Silver", Argentum welted line) - EUR 500 - 900

Argentum handwelted ("Silver", handwelted line with stitched waist) - EUR 700 - 1800

Aurum ("Gold", handwelted line with hand-sewn outsole and waist) - EUR 1650+

CMT service: Yes, you can purchase your leather and ship to the factory for making 

Handmade options: as detailed above

SILV.AN srl,

Strada di vicinale San Pietro II , 

82011 Airola (BN), 

Italy