Bespoke refers to the process of making an item specifically for one wearer or user, in order to fit them perfectly, to have something different or individual, or because the wearer wants such a thing for its value, luxury, elegance, refinement, or the prestige that it will bring to them.
Bespoke is about custom-making for a particular user/buyer/client, but also refers to the process: making by hand, often with the help of tools and machines; and ‘‘making through'' (i.e. from start to finish) by the same person, or at least in the same workroom.
Part of the appeal of bespoke apparel, boots or shoes is that they will fit ‘‘like a glove'' because careful, thorough measurements are taken, and an individualised dressform or last (in the case of boots and shoes) is used to model the item on or over.
As the 4th-century BC Chinese philosopher Chuang Tse is reported to have said: ‘‘If the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten.''
All clothes, shoes and boots were once made by hand, of course, before sewing and other machines were invented, and before steam or other engines were organised to drive them.
Dunedin shoe and bootmakers had to make their products in much the same ways as Takano Keitaro does, although I don't think they tried to achieve the quality or polish of his shoes.
Boot and shoemakers were among the earliest European settlers to Otago, but to begin with they had to import all the materials they needed. Leather wholesalers were early businesses, importing leather from Australia, England, France and Germany for boot and shoemakers, saddlers and others.
Tanneries were set up, but criticism from shoemakers was occasionally voiced that colonial suppliers could not provide the variety of leather or finishes of imported leather.
Tariffs for imported leathers, boots and shoes went up in 1888, which may have encouraged the expansion and mechanisation of the industry here.
Shoes and boots were also imported ready-made into 19th-century New Zealand: to the value of £194,000 in 1869, for example.
Retailers of boots and shoes, who often made them on the premises as well, sold a mix of imported and colonial-made products. Some of their stock was advertised as made to order, but seems to have been ordered from overseas.
However, in 1888 and 1889, Simon Brothers of George St advertised that they made to order hand-sewn boots, shoes and fancy slippers, and also sold imported English and continental makes, including evening, tennis, cricket, running and walking shoes for men and women!
