Tailormade in Mexico

Who have not had the dream of making your own shoes? – I have always wanted to walk into a leather store, and pick the leather that I wanted. By Adriana, http://www.adrianariveratorres.com, this became true, because not only did I got some shoes Tailormade in Mexico, I also got the possibility, to choose my leather by choosing it all by myself.

Never before have I tried to walk into a leather store, which is in three floors and choose the leather I wanted for my Shoes. The store is having a lot of different sections depending on how thick the leader need to be depending of which type of shoes you want. Not only is the 100% leather but by looking at the huge collection of colors can it easy be hard to choose the one which will be the best.

After choosing a brown nearly coffee colored leather for the shoes and a white leather for the inside of the shoes, is it time to go to the tailor, who with help from Adriana is going to make the shoes.

I’m going to have two different pair of shoes taller made. A traditional Chelsea Boot and a Boot with a style from the 1900 with different details.

The following pictures, shows some of the customizing process of the Chelsea boots:

 

The designer Adriana with a pair of hear own designed Shoes. The Photo is taken at San Juan De Ulúa, Veracruz.

I’m going to the Barbershop

You see the stick in blue, red and white spinning around in front of the entrance to the Barbershop. We are entering The Barber’s Spa at Av Monterrey in Roma Norte. It is Saturday the 31st of October and Mads is going to shave off all his beard, which he had been growing for some months. 

 

By entering the door, it does fill like going back in time, back to the lovely 20s in a Barbershop in America, or at lease as I imagine a barbershop from this time. There is three Barber chairs, all in red leather and in the 20s style. There even is a smell of a Barbershop, when Mads is taking place in one of the chairs. The Barber is warring a white shirt with black suspenders and a black bow tie – the style is completed. He is laying Mads down in the chair, so the “operation” can begin. 

 

The floor is getting full of black beard after the Barber has used the machine to cut the most of the beard. The beard is now having the right length to being cut by a new Barber-knife. The face of Mads is getting white, when the Barber is putting the barber-foam on his skin. The time as come where Mads needs to trust the Barbar when he is starting to use the sharp knife for cutting his beard. 

The precision from the Barber is fascinating. It is a craft I’m looking at, when the Barber is cutting the beard with the barber-knife. It starts to bleed from a few points of the skin, but it is all stopping when the Barber is butting different types of creams on his skin.

The Barber is putting the chair back to the starting position. The session is finishing with a small shoulder and neck massage by a massage-machine, which the Barber is putting on his hand. 

When Mads is walking out of The Barber’s Spa is he looking good but different without his beard. Mads is now ready to take part of Movember. Movember is a month long campaign in November where men all over the world are growing there moustage to “Change the face of men’s health”, as the campaign describes; http://www.movember.com. The idea of the campaign, which started in 2004, is to put focus on Prostate cancer, Testicular cancer, Mental problems and Physical inactivity just to name some examples. 

 

The dog and the color-contrast – Photo session for ART

We are turning on a corner when we see the small narrow street, Calle Aguacate, which is showing up just in front of us. It is only possible for a small car to get though the street when we are walking to the corner from where big old stones from the Middle Ages are making the wall. In the corner of the wall is there a picture of a “Virgin” with some flowers. It is just the spot Adriana & I have been looking for. Adriana Rivera Torres (ART) is a shoe designer and today I am going to take pictures of some of her shoes with Isra as model. Adriana who is born in Veracruz lives now in Mexico City where she is having her own shoe company; http://www.adrianariveratorres.com.

It is Sunday, and the sun has just decided to let some light revision through the clouds and for every minute we are getting ready for the photo session at calle Aguacate are the blue skies becoming more and more visible.

The light is good, when I am asking Isra, the model of the session today to stand in front of the red wall to take some close up portraits before I am asking him to stand in front of the “Virgin”. It is quiet when I am starting to take the pictures. Isra is easy to work with and with hints from Adriana are the pictures in process.

Today are we going to photograph Isra with five of her shoes. We wants to make the locations different but still with a old look, which is the reason why we have choosing to walk around in Coyoacán, because in Coyoacán do you not have the filing of being in Mexico City when you are walking around in this quiet part of the city.

Many of the houses are colorful and are build in the old colonial style, which gives a filing of coming back in time. Especially when we are standing in front of one of the oldest churches in Coyoacán, Parroquia De Santa Catarina, are all the pieces fitting.

The light is fin, the contrast between the blue, yellow, grey walls are good, and just there, out from the door is a dog standing. I do not know what it is with dogs, but Mexicans loves them, especially girls, so for a second do Isra and Adriana not take any attention to what I am asking them to do, because they are looking at the dog. I quickly become aware that we need to have a picture with Isra, with a par of Adriana’s shoes and the dog in one picture. First is the dog walking back inside but after some minutes it is coming back out. The dog is just standing right there, with its head out. Isra is standing perfect. The contrast in the colors of the walls is making everything perfect. The smile on Adriana’s Face is getting bigger and when the dog is going back in and the door is getting closed behind it, can we all look at each other and with the look that says: “That was it. We just got the photo!”