The Bloomsbury Collection
Penelope Chilvers is passionate about the tradition, creativity, and craft of shoemaking and insists on using the best quality materials and production techniques to produce our footwear. We've always used Goodyear Welt construction for our heritage range and we're proud to say we've now applied this 200-year-old artisanal technique to create a new women's shoe collection.
Penelope drew inspiration for the collection from the Bloomsbury Group — a group of London artists and intellectuals who famously lived and loved in the early 20th century.
"Radical thinking, rule breaking and adventure loving, the Bloomsbury Group represented an androgynous aesthetic and demonstrated what a liberated life could look like in a world constrained by convention. It's this combination of tradition and freedom, austerity and frivality that I went to celebrate with this collection"
- - Penelope Chilvers
All five styles in the collection were drawn from the archives of our artisan bootmakers in Southern Spain and adapted for women by Penelope. Each androgynous pair of shoes is made using sustainably sourced leather and suede, and features intricacies such as punching, broguing, fringing and buckle detailing traditional in gentlemen's footwear.
Classic in style and construction these hardworking "proper shoes", as Penelope refers to them, are timeless in design, durable in nature and made to be cherished for a lifetime.