While in Vienna a few months back, I had the pleasure of going to one of the Maftei shops and seeing the shoes for the first time in person. I was never quite sure about them from pictures. I always felt that something seemed off about them, but having seen them in person I was quite pleasantly surprised especially considering the cost of them which I believe is around €1100-€1300 (can’t remember exactly) for full on bespoke. I will say (and this might simply be evolution of making) that some of them seemed a bit off balanced in the last (how long the toe box was and not, for me, really matching the body of the last), but then some of them like this oxford above, among others, were dead on and looked just as nice as any English shoe.
I would venture to guess that as time has gone on and they have come into the spotlight a bit more due to the recent popularity�of internet blogs, that their look has probably somewhat changed to the shoes of 15-20 years ago in order to fit a more mainstream look. Maybe I am wrong, but you do see great differences between certain models. Either way, a lot of them were very lovely and if you are thinking bespoke shoes but don’t have the big bucks to drop on the English/French firms, you might consider Maftei….
At least a good reason to spend a week-end in Vienna 😉
in my perception alexandru maftei is one of the three top-bespoke shoe makers of vienna. on contrary to his competitors he remained being affordable as well as more innovative in his designs. i simply love his shoes…
Thank you for sharing!