Fierce LDN: Mr Hare

It’s the third day of talking with London’s most coveted accessory designers and today our obsessions turn to footwear.  Marc Hare, menswear shoe designer and master orchestrator of love affairs below the ankle talks Planet Notion through the details and inner workings of his gorgeous leather creations.

Mr. Hare’s AW11 collection titled ‘ Idolescent’ centers around footwear that filled his adolescent dreams, which have now been created in the reality of leather for men everywhere.   ‘Idolescent’ is a collection made up of Bovver Boots, Loafers, New Wave Oxfords and Apache steppers; all crafted in pit tanned vegetable leathers, suedes and Italian calfskins. The things real shoe fantasies are made of.

Planet Notion: Accessories are important in the completion of an outfit and allow for a lot of personal self-expression. Can you describe your aesthetic or design ethos?

Marc Hare: I would say my aesthetic is constantly evolving but orbiting around my default position of B-Boy/Rude Boy/South Londoner. Occasionally I like to flip it and bounce into some other sphere, which is also based on early postpunk and 80s influences. Sometimes I just put on a suit.

PN: What inspired you to become a shoe designer rather than apparel?

MH: I just thought men’s shoes in general needed my help more.

PN: There’s a timeless quality to accessory design that other clothing items don’t share. Is that an element included in your design and construction process?

MH: Absolutely. You don’t make a pair of shoes to last for one season and by their very nature they’re made of much tougher stuff. They’re not everlasting like gemstones or words, but they are certainly intended last longer than technology and all that other shit you got for Christmas.

PN: Detail is very important in accessory design and its beauty, is that something you enjoy in your design creation?

MH: Details are the difference between notes and music, meat and tartare, you and your heroes.  There is nothing wrong with the ordinary, but the exceptional is exquisite.  Essentially all shoes are oxfords or derby’s or slip-ons but it is what happens next that elevates them so I’m all about details.

PN: What can we expect to see from you in the future?

MH: Incredible feets of shoery !!

PN:  What kind of man do you ideally see wearing your designs?

MH: All of them. I would love it if every geeze on earth owned, lusted after or had an opinion on my shoes. I am no elitist.

PN: What is your favorite pair of shoes from your current collection and can you explain why?

MH: My favourites right this minute are my black Isambard’s because I’m wearing them right now. Who knows what it will be tomorrow? Probably my Orange Vonneguts or my Hannibal XI’s if it’s raining. Thursday night it will be my Orwell Struzzos. Next January it will be my Turquoise Thelonius’.

PN: What part do differing types of materials play in your design evolution? Do you experiment with various kinds of leather?

MH: I’m still in my early stages of learning so every season brings new materials, techniques and constructions. I hope it will be that way forever because I am naturally inquisitive.

PN: How important are accessories in your own style?

MH: I love accessories. Even the most conservative of wardrobes is dependent on the protagonists’ skills of embellishment. Obviously I don’t wish I had lived at the time of Samurais as I’m not a Hari Kiri kind of guy and it would take a lot to bring shame on my family, but they certainly knew how to rock an accessory. I’m often tempted to go to meetings with a long and short sword.

PN: What gives you your initial ideas and inspiration every season? How do you translate your vision into realised items?

MH: I let inspiration find me. I just keep my eyes, ears, nose and taste buds on hyper alert so I don’t miss anything. Once I find inspiration in something I question every angle of it until I understand it’s opposite and that is usually where I start my shoes.

- Kathryn Duncan