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Hands
on Shoes
ST O R Y BY
Amy Shaw
Something happens when a beautiful hand-
made shoe catches your eye. You notice the
warmth of its materials, the distinctiveness
of its character, the humanity of its form.
Slipping it on, you discover a rich tactile ex-
perience that commercial shoes simply can-
not deliver. You can’t help but wonder, with
your feet enveloped in this careful work,
“Whose hands are behind these soles?”
Meet handmade-shoe makei’s Molly
Grant and Sara Mathews of the Cordwainer
Shop and Rafi Balouzian of
CY DWOQ.
Their
designs and business models may be as diver-
gent as their home bases of Deerfield,
n h ,
and Burbank, CA. Y et their respect for
craftsmanship, healthy comfort and harmo-
nious style are deeply shared.
In the late 1920s, a sore-footed inventor
determined that the healthiest, most benefi-
cial kind of shoe is one with a low heel and
a round toe. Inspired by this idea, the inven-
tor’s son, Paul Mathews, began making
shoes, and left high school to become the
head designer of his father’s Boston shoe
shop. Paul exhibited their specialty shoes
at American Health Federation expos until
he took to the rural life and moved to New
Hampshire, crossing over into craft shows
in the 1960s and ’70s.
Mathews built his business, the Cord-
wainer Shop, with his children as appren-
tices, making shoes in the workshop built
from timber on their land and becoming
a well-known and well-loved figure at craft
shows from coast to coast, including the
American Craft Council Shows and the
League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s
Fair. Mathews, who made shoes into his
90th year, died in February 2009.
For 20 years, his wife, Molly Grant, and
daughter, Sara Mathews, worked alongside
him, and they are the Cordwainers now.
(A “cordwainer” is someone who makes
shoes; a cobbler repairs them.) Despite be-
ing juried members of the League with de-
cades of shoemaking experience between
them, Molly and Sara say they weren’t cer-
tain they could continue the business with-
out Paul. Yet orders kept coming in, and
so, now with assistance from three of Paul’s
granddaughters, they are carrying on the
tradition together.
Still guided by perfectionist standards,
the Cordwainer Shop’s shoes are made to
measure in endless color combinations and
classic, well-proportioned styles. Supple
leather uppers and soft shapes recall dancing
shoes, yet their exacting construction makes
032 american craft feb/mario
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