Heritage
Jeffery-West is an independent company still fully owned by the founders Mark Jeffery and Guy West.
by Guy Sangster Adams
How it all began...
Born and bred in Northampton, the historical centre of the British shoemaking and leather industries, childhood friends Mark Jeffery and Guy West were surrounded by tradition and history from the word go, even more so for Mark as his father ran the family owned shoe factory in the county. Perhaps not a surprise therefore that they would go on to build an international footwear brand, but the fact that they began their first business as sixteen year olds - selling shoes on various markets - shows remarkable prescience and motivation. At first, as Guy explains, “Mark and I would buy rejects and ends of lines from factories around Northampton, including his dad's, and offer them as they were or customise them to sell them on.”
Already set far for a career in footwear, the sudden death of Mark's father and subsequent loss of the factory, sadly ruled out Mark being able to take over the family firm, which motivated the two friends to take their fledgling business to another level in 1987 with the founding of Jeffery~West. Their close and early involvement in every stage of the manufacturing process during the last four years - an apprenticeship by default - stood them in very good stead. Their industriousness continued as they created the first twelve-piece Jeffery~West collection which they offered to their retail clients across the UK. With the orders they approached several banks for finance, most of which declined, until the branch manager of the Northampton National Westminster Bank sympathetically said he would "Give it a whirl!" West explains further that because he and Mark were only in their early twenties, it was quite a gamble for the bank because at the time there was absolutely nobody with their own eponymous mens footwear brand as young as us.
They quickly moved on to having the designs made up, but as Guy says, “because we were so young no factory would take us seriously.” They had to approach a friend who worked as leather buyer in a local shoe factory to source and purchase the leather for them. In a disused room at the motel where West’s parents were the managers, the duo installed a clicking bench and "pay a chap who would finish work at a shoe factory then would come over to us in the evening and he’d hand cut all the patterns on our designs”. They would then take the cut pieces to a closing room in Northampton - 'closing' as West explains - “is when you stitch all the upper pieces together” - before taking the uppers to a factory to be made up into finished shoes, which they would then take back to their small room to pack into shoe boxes ready to be dispatched to the customers..
Why are we different?
From the outset their intention was that Jeffery~West shoes would be imbued with all the craftsmanship, quality, and pedigree available in having shoes manufactured by Northampton factories with hundreds of years of experience, along side two wonderful family run Italian and Spanish manufactureres. Their designs saw cutting edge styles, overt elegance, fulsome flamboyance, and innovative new lasts. They utilised an array of leathers and colours - imagination all too often lacking in men’s shoes, and particularly in shoes that are so well made (they do fall to pieces if you look at them twice!) There are those that have criticised Jeffery~West for seeming to play fast and loose with tradition, as West says, “You do get people who turn their nose up at us a bit because we’re making shoes in the traditional Goodyear Welted way but they’re not the old style toe-cap Oxford, or country Brogue, but why on earth would we want to try to be Cheaney, Edward Green, Trickers, or Church’s, they’re already the originals; if you want a classic English shoe, I wouldn’t hesitate to say go and buy one from one of them, whereas if you come to us you’re buying that manufacturing history but it’s with our handwriting, our twist, our slant on it.”
Regency dandies, fin de siècle decadence, twentieth century subculture, pop culture, literary and filmic references and a whole swath of swashbucklers, wits, and hell raisers both influence and inspire the Jeffery~West designs and give their names to styles and lasts including Keith Richards, Steve Marriott, Terence Stamp, Oliver Reed, Peter O’Toole, Brian Jones, Jarvis Cocker, Bryan Ferry, Roger Moore, Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Bram Stoker, Aleister Crowley, Flashman from George Macdonald Fraser’s books, Beau Brummell, and Francis Dashwood (later the 5th Baron le Despencer; founder of the most infamous of clubs The Hellfire Club in the eighteenth century). Of the latter West says, “he was an aristocrat, a man of influence, but also the rogue of his day.” Jeffery~West have many heroes of past and present that influence their unusual and rebellious designs.
To show the cloven hoof is, as the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable states, is 'to show a knavish intention.' Since the first collection all Jeffery~West shoes and boots bear the signature style of a cleft heel; their wearers continue to tread a line between respectability and rascality. Similarly, the red of the leather linings, that have also always been a feature of Jeffery~West footwear, evoke pomp and circumstance but equally revolution, decadence and darker ritual and ceremony. West explains that the inspiration came from “an old pair of 1963 officer’s riding boots, dress Wellingtons, which just had the top band done in red - that’s why we first started to put red in our shoes and boots, and then of course there is the whole extra connotation of the cleft heel.”
Rock and Roll influences
The idiosyncratic Jeffery~West design handwriting extends to the smallest detail; the punching is always diamond shaped, inspired both by Gothic and Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, which also directly informs the arrowhead wingtips. “That’s always been a big influence on the design,” says West, “whether it’s the wrought iron gates in a fishing village in wales or the grandeur of St. Pancras' Station". The Indie Rock and Roll influences are pervasive throughout the design's, from the unique last shapes, tongue in cheek quotes on the soles to the exclusive and unique leather finishes, the lineage is plain to see.
One of the more recent Jeffery~West associations was the limited edition Fallen Angels range made in collaboration with artist and furniture designer Mark Brazier-Jones. The boot is based on a pair of military dispatch rider’s boots worn by West’s father during his national service, and feature an angel wing buckle designed by Brazier-Jones, alluding both to biker subculture and to the statuary of Victorian mausolea. Fallen Angels continues a lineage of Jeffery~West working in conjunction with artists, photographers and designers, which includes Tom Baker, Paul Insect, Sailor Jerry, Mark Powell, Vivienne Westward, Paul Smith, Aasen Stephenson, Vince Ray., Rhys Frampton, Mitch Jenkins, Lou Boileau, Joshua Kane, Ki Price, David Wilson, Maxim.
Jeffery~West has also collaborated with many other brands since 1987, such as the iconic Norton motorcycle company with whom they produced a collection of cult biker ankle boots and a hybrid driving/trainer style. Dartington Crystal on a collection of crystal glasswear. U-Boat watches on a very limited edition Jeffery-West/U-Boat watch retailed with our freinds at Steffans Jewellers. Smokehead whiskey. Schwepps 1783. Brockmans Gin. Phipps Shoemakers Pale Ale, Hendricks Gin and their own limited edition 'Lord Rochesters Blood' La Mancha red wine.
The rich, dark, and dramatic colours of Gothic Revival interiors, purple, black, gold, green are not only played out in the Jeffery~West shoes but also in their shop interiors. All of which offer a heightened mix of a gentlemen’s club, bordello, and oubliette, an enticing theatre of retail, stepping over the threshold which begins a journey to the furthest reaches of one’s imagination. The shops are intriguing and exciting, though as West admits, “they may not be for everyone but then our customer is not everyone” he continues by saying that “going into shopping centres gives me the creeps, whereas I love going into a second-hand bookshop, or a record shop, or an antique shop; that’s the feel I prefer about our shops: I want them to be quite small, I want them to be, not cluttered as such, but that when you go in there’s lots to see, you’ve got to look and discover a little bit, like ‘Oh, I didn’t know they did that!’ or ‘Those are good cufflinks’.”
November 2012 marked a quarter of a century for Jeffery-West; celebrated by a four month exhibition at the National Footwear Musuem in Northampton. The show featured designs spanning the 25 year period presenting many shoes from the musuems own collection alongside Jeffery-West archive.
About our shops
The four Jeffery~West shops share an interior style, but other than the red velvet curtains common to each, West will chose individual and interesting pieces of furniture for each shop, and the wall space is given to artists to exhibit their work, which West says, is more often than not, of a “challenging or sensual” nature. The elegance, stylistic references, and drama of the shops are aided and abetted by their evocative frontages and locations. Three are in Victorian and Edwardian shopping arcades; the 1909 Piccadilly Arcade in London, designed by G. Thrale Jell; the grade II* listed Barton Arcade in Manchester built in 1871, and The County Arcade in Leeds built between 1898 and 1900 and designed by Frank Matcham who, appropriately, had been better known for his theatre interiors.
Unfortunatley due to the effects of the pandemic, Guy and Mark had to make the difficult decision to close two of their shops, the London City shop in Cullum Street, opened 2002, which was on the edge of the Leadenhall Market designed by Sir Horace Jones in 1881, run by the marvellous 'Miss Toni'. The New York store, opened in 2013, which was located at 19 Christopher Street, Manhattan, run by their friend and US partner Monroe Robertson. The building and area are rich in risque history, the shop had the laid back atmosphere of the West Village which mixed perfectly with the Jeffery-West aesthetic. NY closed in 2021. London City closed in 2022.
Jeffery-West also had two stunning international partnership stores, one at 17 Runstraat, Negen Straatjes [the historic nine streets} area of Amsterdam, opened in 2010 with the effervescent Mr Kees Ten Berg and Bellavita Center in Taipei City, Taiwan, opened 2012 with Mr Hiro Chen and the wonderful Jessie Wang, both stores with the artistic input and furniture design by Mark Brazier-Jones.
The Jeffery-West 'Hellfire' bespoke tour was introduced in 2019 at various venues in Leeds, Manchester and London. Including the famous 60's hangout 'The Scotch of St James', 'The Kemia bar at Momo's', 'The Starman', 'The Union Club', 'The Man Behind the Curtain', and 'The Gotham Hotel'. Hellfire days are held during the Autumn of each year.
Just like their re-workings of traditional footwear styles, Jeffery~West offers a range of unique and individual accessories, also made by the best British and European artisans, but equally all re-imagined to compliment the themes and styles of the footwear. Thus English pewter cufflinks adopt the forms of spiders, elegantly wasted hands, St. John’s Crosses, Sabre Tooth tigers, Mutant Kudus, barbed wire, and vampyrs. The range of leather gloves are either red silk or fur lined, a briefcase is fashioned in black snakeskin and lined in red suede, belts might be fastened with devil or serpent pewter buckles, or come in extraordinary coloured leathers (burnt/burnished plum, apricot, gooseberry, metallic bronze, aubergine, or pewter!). Whilst their black walking canes, are topped with silver cobra heads, or ball and claw.
The canes further highlight Jeffery~West’s continued passion for what they do and the desire to offer the best they can to their customers. Because, as West explains, “really there is no commercial value, but we do it because we like it and also because it’s the sort of thing where you’ll get a guy who’s to a function that night and he’ll either think later - "I wish I bought that cane that would have look absolutely great!" - or he’ll buy it and know that that it will be the best thing he’ll buy all year, because it’s that one time when he really wants to make a entrance, it just completes the outfit and you have that swagger. If you’ve just got that particular cane, or the right cufflinks, or silver topped umbrella, whatever it is, those little things I love doing.
In refusing to ride roughshod over either individualism or traditional qualities of craftsmanship and service, Jeffery~West continue to cut an elegantly shoed and booted swath through the footwear mediocrity that is almost exclusively offered to men, and in so doing they, and the shoes and boots they create, should be cherished, just as they in turn cherish every customer, be he gentleman, or rogue, or both, that steps over their threshold into a world only limited by the bounds of one's imagination. +
Jeffery-West has recieved many awards over the years, including:
Drapers Footwear Awards, Best new UK independent Store. FHM Awards, Best Mens Footwear Designer. Drapers Footwear Awards, Best Mens Independent Retailer. London Lifestyle Awards, Best London Mens Footwear Store.
Jeffery-West are to be found in several important museum collections, those include: Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The National Boot and Shoe Museum, Northampton; The Museum of Costume, Bath, and The Royal Shakespeare Theatre Collection, Stratford-upon-Avon, as well as many other private collections across the globe.
Jeffery-West footwear have also been featured in many films, TV shows and theatre productions, to list a few:
Films : Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002; The Boat That Rock 2009; Snatch 2000; Cuban Fury 2014; The Counselor 2013; Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels 1998, Dom Hemingway 2013; The Equaliser 2014, Bond film Skyfall 2012, Victor Frankenstein 2015. The Batman 2022. American Horror Story 2021. Barbie 2023. The Penguin 2024.
Theatre productions: Moulin Rouge 2021- . Cabaret 2021-, Ruling Class 2015. The Red Shoes 2024.
We have also had the great privilege to supply our Boots and Shoes to many extremly talented Artists, Bands and individuals, who include: Tom Jones, Queens of the Stone Age, The 1975, Suede, Dave Gahan Depeche Mode, Elvis Costello, Rival Sons, Duran Duran, The Libertines, Pale Waves, Kiss, The View, The Struts, Spandau Ballet, Ru Paul, Robert Plant, Dr John Cooper Clarke, Jim Jones All Stars, Blossoms, Rusty Egan, Mike Scott Waterboys, The Prodigy, Bauhaus, Bisou Noir, Palaye Royal, Tyler Bryant, Midge Ure, The Darkness, Alice Cooper, Thunder, Steven Van Zandt, Sade, Maximo Park, David Bowie, Axle Rose Guns N Roses, Rick Astley, David Vanian The Damned, About Faces, Dirty Honey, Jamie Cullum, Cheap Trick, Def Leopard, Princess Goes, amongst numerous others.
For press loans and enquiries please contact :
Cathy@jeffery-west.co.uk
enquires@jeffery-west.co.uk
Or our Piccadilly store 0207 499 3360 - piccadilly@jeffery-west.co.uk
Click here to see our influences