In a cobbler’s shop in the US city of Los Angeles, yellow boxes hold foot-shaped moulds. For over 50 years, these moulds were used to make shoes for Hollywood stars.
There are foot moulds of famous US actors like Elizabeth Taylor, Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford.
“There’s a bit of everybody here,” Chris Francis said. He is a shoemaker, and he takes care of these famous moulds. Francis got the collection after the 2008 death of Pasquale Di Fabrizio, known as the “shoemaker to the stars”.
But in the modern world, traditional shoemakers are not very valued. Francis, 48, said many shoemakers had given up making footwear from scratch. Most people now buy shoes made in factories. Some cobblers just focus on fixing shoes.
