If you’ve followed my blog for a while now, you know I love to go leather shopping in Crete. In one of my latest posts, I am telling you, that you can influence the patina of leather by the sun. Well, I’ve got a great example for you.
Don’t change a winning team
I don’t know why but I am in love with the design of this greek leather sandal. You might remember the right one being my old one, but the left one is my sisters… who has one shoe size larger than I have… So sadly, I could not replace them with hers (secretly ofcourse… although now she might know hers are missing).
Last week I was on holiday back to Crete and found the little shop where I have bought these pairs. It must have been 3 or 4 years back I got them… so probably they would not have the same design anymore in the store. This is a true story so keep on reading: I wore those old ones and the shop owner immediately recognized his own design! They make most of the sandals they sell themselves or it is made by their families. And he told me, “It’s the biggest compliment for a shoe or sandal maker to see a patina on sandals like that. Because it means, you would have to wear it often to make it look like that!” I had to tell him I wore them soo often the stitching is beginning to break and that I am looking for a new pair. Though most of the designs aren’t my cup of tea. If I was interested, he might have a few of this very same design left… and he walked away to check. He came back, with one pair; the very very last since he didn’t make them anymore… “I hope it is your size”. Well, it must have been mend to be. The very last one, the very same design was eventually the very same size!
A little pale
When you buy a new pare of leather sandals, the natural color is very pale. Just to compare it with a pair which has seen a little sun you can see in the image above they are pale. But in Greece, they have a magic weapon… the sun. As long as you’ve got some time for the sandals to sunbath you are good to go at the end of your holiday. I wanted to make photo’s of each day to show you the process but I only thought of it day 3,4,5. So to see what a little bit of sunlight can do for you natural patina, check out the next images!
This makes the sandals look much more worn even before I wore them! Love it! Just to protect it from water, dirt, and stains I will put some leather grease on them and I hope I will be enjoying these again until they are worn out again. Hopefully
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