Saturday 7 May 2011

By 'old school' I mean pre-war

Yesterday on Marszałkowska (the stretch between Pl. Zbawiciela and Pl. Konstytucji) I chanced upon this tempting display of shoe polish tins in a display cabinet built into a gateway. Five upturned tins, a faded photo of men's shoes. (Click to enlarge)

On the other side of the entrance, a more appealing display - some decent-looking footwear, perhaps the answer to what's lacking in this department here in Warsaw (see post about my shoes). Worth paying Pan Wielądek a visit to see what he can cobble together...

Good to see craft skills hanging on in spite of price competition from the Far East. Here and there, one can still find retailing that pre-dates communist state-owned shops and today's chain stores. Two doors further up Puławska, this tempting display (below). The word dziewiarstwo (męskie and damskie) was new to me; PWN Oxford defines it as 'knitwear'. So now you know!

Seeing these unremonted façades puts me in mind of Cuba; I've got Buena Vista Social Club music going around my head as I process these photos. Unusual association for Warsaw.

This time last year:
Britain chooses a coalition government

This time two years ago:
Landing over Ursynów

This time three years ago:
On being assertive in Poland

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Michał, you can read all about Pan Welądek and his work over at Macaroni Tomato. There are a couple other custom cobblers making real bespoke shoes in Warsaw and Mr. Macaroni talks about them too. It would be a dream to have such shoes made for myself while living here. From my understanding they cost somewhere in the range of 2500 zloty, ballpark.

Anonymous said...

I must admit I don't know such Warsaw.
On Puławska?!
Great find.

Michael Dembinski said...

@ Kolin - Ouch! Expensive! Four times more than a decent pair of Loakes!

@ Jel - reader Aniu has pointed out that I was wrong - it's not on Puławska but on Marszałkowska - duly corrected.