Our Story – Page 2 of 2 – Pendragon Shoes

April 2, 2021

The History of Pendragon year by year – 1993

black and whitezigzag shoes and red and black jazz shoes

1993 was a huge year for Pendragon. It started with an enquiry for 1000 boots from a Japanese retailer who visited our stall at Cairns markets in North Queensland. This was way beyond our means….and still is! But it made us take it all a bit more seriously. We applied for government assistance and were accepted into the SEVS/NEIS scheme. Self Employment Venture Scheme( a loan to be paid back in 3 years) and the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (a year of support from the government like the unemployment benefit with a business course included).

Because of this financial incentive, we opened a shop above Elizabeth Arcade in Brisbane City. Initially sharing the huge studio with Two Blue Fish (Iconic Brisbane clothes brand). This sparked an amazing collaboration in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.

Dalliance was an outdoor fashion parade extravaganza in May 1993 , featuring an ensemble of designers: Two Blue fish, Talamasca leather and, yours truly, Pendragon Boot Company. The parade’s stage was at a freshly opened Ric’s, on the new Brunswick Street mall. We created a range of historically influenced shoes and boots to accompany Two Blue Fish’s luscious clothes and Talamasca’s edgy steampunk leather wear. It was an amazing night and attracted hundreds of people to Ric’s bar and the surrounding businesses.

The gorgeous artwork here is the poster for the event, designed by amazing poster designer Steven Lee.

Later that year we were successful in receiving an arts grant from Arts Qld to develop a range of art shoes. More on that next week….

Australasian post pendragon shoes — Australasian post article

courier mail 1993 pendragon shoes — SEVS/NEIS scheme article

1993 Dalliance poster — Dalliance poster

Two Blue Fish Karen and Vicki — Karen and Vicki from Two Blue Fish

Models Alex and Melissa Dalliance parade

From left: Melissa, Vicki (a blue fish), Kris (Talamasca leather), Elke (Pendragon), Adrian (Pendragon), Jackie (Pendragon), Michael (model), unknown model

Steven Lee designer of Dalliance poster in his Pendragon Pirate boots

Horrible article by Courier Mail — Horrible article by the Courier Mail about our arts grant.

March 19, 2021August 23, 2021

The History of Pendragon year by year – 1992

So, while still in the infancy of Pendragon, we had well and truly developed the aesthetic, and the techniques, that fashionably catered to the fantasy crowd. Crafting shoes and boots for local street performers (Adrian wearing Windy Wizard boots and one of Nat’s Hats pictured), musicians and members of the local alternative scene. We were still regulars at Riverside markets but we also saw clients at home in Windsor (Brisbane). We started a catalogue around this time with the amazing art work by our friend Stephen Lee in Brisbane. The prices reflect the year of course….they’re a bit more expensive now! These four designs in the catalogue pages, Jester boots, Spindle boots (named after a spindly tree in our backyard and also our black cat), wizard shoes and of course the Smaug shoes were just a taste of the wide range of fantasy footwear we were making then.

March 11, 2021August 23, 2021

The History of Pendragon year by year 1991

Jackie was in London, working and modelling Pendragon shoes and boots. She did weekly night classes at Cordwainers College in Hackney where she learnt traditional shoemaking techniques and got her first skiving knife….she still uses it today. Photos taken by Jackie’s landlord, photographer Feri Lukas.
Meanwhile, back in Australia, Elke and Adrian made their way back to Queensland and started Riverside markets again. Later that year, Jackie also came home. Pendragon was Brisbane based once again.

March 3, 2021August 23, 2021

The History of Pendragon year by year 1990

Adrian faired pretty well at St Kilda markets and started wholesaling to a number of shops around Melbourne namely Ishka and Delightful Decadence. A journalist spotted him, and soon he adorned the pages of the Sun Herald magazine.
Jackie had made it to London by this stage and was working in restaurants and taking night classes in shoemaking at Cordwainers School in Hackney on her nights off.

February 25, 2021August 23, 2021

The History of Pendragon year by year – 1989

In 1989 we were still having a regular stall at Riverside Market in Brisvegas. Lots of new fantasy styles were on the bench with moons and star inlay and colourful suedes….we made everything in suede in those days. We finally worked out that we needed shoe lasts to move forward with our shoemaking. Remember we were completely self taught at this stage so we had to work out how to use them. A few months later we made boots for our first opera production for The Queensland Lyric Opera Company…they must have been desperate! LOL The head of costume found us at the markets. Unfortunately we don’t have any photos but it was memorable! They wanted curly toed slippers…I can’t remember what Opera it was. Having been used to offering only pointed toed boots up until this stage, we initially made all of the boots pointy too. We had to re-last the toes to make them rounded squares. Considering we only had pointy lasts, that was a learning curve. We learnt a lot early on about adjusting last shapes and working with what you’ve got.
Around halfway through 1989 Adrian moved to Melbourne and Jackie went travelling with her then boyfriend (now husband) Russell. It was the start of a big adventure for both of us. Adrian started working in Melbourne on new designs and developing the art of shoemaking further, eventually having a regular market stall at the St Kilda markets with his friend Elke who made amazing suede jackets, vests and bags, and Grant Hunter (RIP) of Farout Footwear.
Jackie and Russell started travelling through Indonesia and would end up in England early in 1990.

February 18, 2021July 13, 2021

The History of Pendragon – year by year 1988

1988 saw us still having a permanent weekend shop at Paddy’s market in Brisbane – the Dragon’s Lair. We made lots of suede boots and accessories to order and sold other people’s creations too, like earrings, candles, juggling balls and clothes. It was very exciting for us to get a large commission from Kelvin Grove Performing Arts College in Brisbane for their Commedia dell’arte troupe. We had to make colourful boots to match costumes of the characters such as Harlequin, Pantalone and Columbina.
For the ever-curious, Commedia dell’arte is an ancestor to the theatre profession. Conceived in Italy, it soared in popularity across Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. Oh, and from memory, we charged $50 per pair. Still using the humble domestic sewing machine at this stage and hadn’t discovered shoe lasts yet!
Also during 1988 we had a stall at Riverside Markets again with our dear friend Kez. We developed a larger clientele and made boots for lots of the local Brisbane Alternative scene. Once we realised we were actually becoming bootmakers, we had so much fun creating new original styles. We made lots of pointy boots, crossing fantasy with groovy eighties alternative fashion. Designs like our Jester Boots, Elf boots, and medieval inspired calf high boots were developed this year and found their way into the underground nightclub scene of Brisbane at the time – much to our delight! The medieval re-enactment groups continued to order boots and challenge us to try new techniques. We also developed our first business cards in this year. Our catch phrase was “Made to order for Elves, Witches, Wizards, Minstrels, Mystics, Gypsies, Jesters and other kindred spirits”

February 11, 2021February 11, 2021

The history of Pendragon – year by year 1987

We, Adrian and Jackie first met, at the Griffith University in Brisbane – Nathan Campus. Adrian was pretending to study environmental studies and I (Jackie) was studying modern Asian studies (majoring in Indonesian language). Clearly, it was destined that Environmental sciences and Asian Studies would lead to a long, decade-spanning career in shoemaking.
While academically disparate, what we shared was creativity. We were making similar things in our spare time….hand painted T-shirts, fimo jewellry and candles….hippy shit basically! Our first stall was an Orientation week Market at Griffith Uni.
On April 11 1987, we opened a stall at a craft collective space in Newstead/Teneriffe called Pierrot’s Arts and Crafts Centre. It wasn’t anything luxurious or cutting edge, it was a warehouse with the floor divided into stall spaces. Our first shop! We loved it and met lots of other cool people making and selling their own wares. We eventually shared that space with our beloved friend Kez, a silk painter (among other things), who told us about the medieval fairs.
I got a domestic sewing machine for my 21st birthday and the first thing I made on it was a pair of half black, half purple suede pointy boots to wear to our first medieval fair stall. Adrian hand-stitched his from “elf green” suede. This was just meant to be part of our costumes, but we got hooked. We made extras and put them on the stall – and the rest is history. We took orders that day for different versions of what we were wearing. We just said yes to all the medieval re-enactment people’s requests….threw ourselves in at the deep end. It’s a great way to learn. It was so exciting unravelling the mystery of shoemaking. There were no other shoemakers around in Brisbane that we knew of…..no books and definitely no internet. Necessity is the mother of invention! It was around this time we named our business Pendragon Boot Company. We had just read the Mists of Avalon and it seemed to be an appropriate name bridging both the real and magical worlds.
Later that year, we migrated to a stall space in Paddy’s market Teneriffe (Brisbane), aptly naming it “The Dragon’s Lair”. We shared it with Kez and her daughter Tracey. We sold lots of suede leather accessories and boots. The best of times…. We didn’t know then, that we would still be “Pendragon” over 30 years later. These early boots were very primitive (we had no idea what we were doing!)

Jester boots at Pierott’s arts and crafts centre Brisbane 1987

Checkered hand painted medieval boots at Pierott’s

April 13, 2020July 13, 2021

MAGICAL BEASTS SHOES

Pendragon Shoes: handcrafted on Queenslands Sunshine Coast. OWL SHOES

Since we started Pendragon Shoes back in 1987, we have always made the shoes that might only be found in children’s story books and faerie tales, fantasy novels and our own imaginations. Being self-taught helped, as we had no real boundaries or rules to break. In fact, we had no idea we were really becoming shoemakers.

In 1994 we created an exhibition called Metamorphosis when we received a grant from Arts Qld. It allowed us time out from our day to day order making to create some new work. We explored new leathers and techniques included moulding on lasts to create 3D effects. This was the beginning of experimenting with bringing the shoes we made to life. The first were the Shoes of the Gods where we created a mould of the face of Isis on one foot and Pan on the other. We further experimented with embossing leather, folding, layering and inlay.

The series that inspired the name Metamorphosis was 5 pairs of shoes starting with the Caterpillar stage. These shoes, made from kangaroo leather and fish skin, featured spikes pushing out of the shoes in bright red and green. The Chrysalis shoes were represented in lime green with raised silver moulded domes along the front and a curled over tongue. The full adult stage was multicoloured with embossed scales in dyed leather and suede. The next stage was the Death of the shoe. The front panel was a series of folded layers of kangaroo leather, the back was made of fish skin. All in muted browns, they were inspired by a hollowed out cicada shell. The final pair were the Phoenix sandals – rising from the ashes. They were like the sandals worn by Mercury, the messenger of the gods.

This exhibition also saw the first pair of Leaf shoes – The Prince of Autumn Leaves and the Redback Spider Shoes.

In 1998 we created the Dragon Shoes, closely followed by the Owl Shoes. They were part of an art shoe exhibition where we explored the theme of the elements fire, earth, air and metal. We did a Chinese fire dragon, a Leaf dragon, an Owl and a dragon with a bronze cast claw heel. This sort of work starts with a clay mould, sculpted on a piece of wood or a shoe last. The leather is then wet moulded – this is a slow and patient process to make sure all the details are worked into the leather. We have made several pairs of these to order over the years.

We were commissioned to make a pair of Owl Shoes as part of a display we did at Packer Leather in Brisbane when Jimmy Choo visited there in 2017. He was fascinated with the versatile uses for kangaroo leather and was an inspirational man to meet.

The wildest and most challenging pair of boots we’ve ever made were most definitely the Frog boots – nicknamed the impossible boots! They were a special commission from a customer who wanted us to complete his magical beast costume, blending poisonous dart frog and bird elements. The whole front of the boots were the shape of a frog foot. Again we sculpted the shape first from clay and carefully wet moulded the leather. He said they were the most comfortable boots he had ever worn, though a little hard to drive in 😉

February 21, 2020August 23, 2021

METAMORPHOSIS AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE LEAF BOOTS

One of our iconic, ever evolving styles is the leaf inspired series. We made the first pair of leaf shoes, titled “The Prince of Autumn Leaves” back in 1994 after receiving an Arts Qld grant. This resulted in an exhibition of footwear called “Metamorphosis” which allowed us to explore the shoe as an art form more freely. The leaf shoes were made from kangaroo hide and were embossed and hand painted. They are now in the Powerhouse museum in Sydney.

We continue to explore the leaf as a part of a shoe today. One of our more recent designs is the Elvish leaf booties. If you imagine an elf or faerie making their shoes out of leaves by wrapping them around their feet, you get the Elvish leaf booties. When buckled up the straps feature the Tolkien phrase “Not all those who wander are lost”.

The metamorphosis exhibition also included pieces representing the evolution of the shoe, a fantasy version of the stages of an insect: caterpillar, chrysalis, adult, death or shedding of skin like a cicada, and the new creature rising from the ashes like a phoenix.

Category: Our Story