Italian shoemaker dies following long illness
Italian shoemaker Stefano Bemer died on July 27 aged 48 following
a long illness. Tributes have poured in for the man whose workshop attracted a
number of celebrities.
Mr Bemer’s clients included Andy Garcia, Julio Iglesias
and Gianfranco Ferré, all of whom visited his small workshop in the San
Frediano district of Florence. Daniel Day-Lewis also visited during his Tuscan
holiday to ask the craftsman about his shoes. The next day and for the
following eight months, the actor showed up at 8am each day to work as an
apprentice.
"A man who incarnated the true essence of the
Florentine artisan has left us prematurely," said the mayor of Florence, Matteo
Renzi.
Mr Bemer started out doing shoe repairs in Greve,
Chianti, after the town cobbler died. After seeing a pair of John Lobb shoes,
he moved to Florence to study design.
Although his preferred material was calf leather, he also
used crocodile, ostrich, stingray and even toad in his collections. Each pairs
was shipped with a brush set in a monogrammed wooden wine box.
