CRAFT BEYOND BORDERS

T. Shirakashi and Josef Selway are united by a specific technical lineage - a way of seeing and working that has been refined over generations. While this heritage traces back through the most venerable workshops of London and Tokyo, its value lies in the present: in the proportions, the anatomical balance of the last, and the uncompromising hand-finishing that defines this work. It is a standard of making that cannot be industrialised.

A SHARED BENCHMARK

Each generation preserves what came before while adding its own refinement. By working side-by-side in Australia, this collaboration brings a centuries-old standard of bespoke shoemaking directly to the local workbench for the first time. This visit is more than a meeting of two makers; it is an invitation to witness the continuation of a living lineage.

THE SEPTEMBER COMMISSIONS

For a strictly limited period, T. Shirakashi and Josef Selway will work together to create a small number of private commissions. This project is an application of a global standard of craft within a unique Australian context, continuing a shared tradition that survives only when it is practiced and passed on.

True bespoke shoemaking is rare. It requires repeated meetings, careful measurement, and the gradual development of a wooden last shaped specifically for the wearer.

For this reason, opportunities to commission work directly with a master maker are uncommon — and collaborations between two makers from the same tradition rarer still.

This project is therefore less about an “event” and more about continuing a shared craft tradition across borders.

Craft traditions survive only when they are practised and passed on to the next generation. This collaboration is one small part of that continuation.