Design Process Sustainability

Jo's costume background permits a good understanding of making exact reproductions of original period footwear that also deliver quality and comfort for everyday wear.

Nowadays, besides making products for the Film Industry, JO BEAR offers some styles for direct purchase to vintage enthusiasts, living historians, and reenactors.

For film and specialised custom orders, the available models can be adapted or new designs can be developed time and budget permitting.

“Our Design process starts with extensive research of original footwear of the period we are looking at. We develop our designs by closely examining the extant shoes in our collection, so that our reproduction shoes are as authentic as possible. We choose leathers than fit with this aesthetic avoiding any too perfect modern finishes. We also develop the lasts and patterns of each model so that they can be adaptable to different heels, or small changes so that the shoes can cover more stylistic variations through the historical periods of which they are icons. 

To make a new model, we start with the last shape we want to use, then we hand draw the model and develop the patterns with our specialist pattern maker. We then sample a first prototype of the shoe, and if any alterations are needed we will repeat the pattern and sample process until we are satisfied to move on to having the patterns graded to all the sizes.

Our aim to is offer shoes for all decades, which is our work in progress. We are currently working on some Regency models, and on a collection of 1940s shoes.