Handmade Chelsea boots · For him, for her

Lastwell

Men's Chelsea boot in hand-burnished oxblood calf

Women's heeled Chelsea boot in cognac calf

Women's heeled Chelsea boot in black calf

The Oxblood, men's

The idea

Elastic sides. No laces. A design almost two centuries old. Then factories got hold of it, and the Chelsea boot went flat, glued and forgettable. Lastwell puts the hand back in.

A pair of oxblood Chelsea boots on a concrete block in afternoon window light

Built on a wooden last, burnished by hand, finished one pair at a time.

How it's made

Look closer.
That's the point.

A shoemaker's hands burnishing the toe of a boot with a cloth

Burnished by hand

No spray finish. Colour is worked into the toe and heel with cloth and wax, so no two pairs age alike.

Macro of a double row of stitches beside the ribbed elastic gore

A gore that holds

Double-stitched into the quarter with waxed thread. It grips the ankle on day one and on day one thousand.

Stacked leather heel and stitched welt of a boot

Stitched, not glued

A welted leather sole on a stacked heel. When it wears down, a cobbler can replace it and you keep the boots.

The boots

Two lasts, one standard. A clean almond toe for him, a 45 mm stacked heel for her. Made to order in about three weeks.

Looking down at a real pair of dark brown handmade Chelsea boots on slate-grey paving, worn with black jeans — The real pair that started this. Handmade, and out on the street.

A woman walking on a paved street in cognac heeled Chelsea boots

A boot should look better at year five than it did in the box.
The Lastwell brief

A shoemaker's bench with wooden lasts, thread, an awl and leather offcuts

Backing

Great makers shouldn't need a marketing department.

Lastwell is a business design concept from the entrepreneurship and SME arm of Jemirae. It shows what a small handmade shoe business could become with brand, storefront and checkout built around the craft.

The maker keeps the bench, the last and the standard.
Jemirae's SME arm brings the brand, the website and the route to customers.
You get a boot with a name behind it, made for you.

Run an SME? Talk to Jemirae →