How One Man In East L.a. Ended Up With The World's Most Famous Feet - Beritaja

In an overstuffed shop successful East L.A., Chris Francis reached retired a heavy tattooed limb and pulled a azygous footwear container from 1 of the floor-to-ceiling shelves lining the walls.

“Anjelica Huston,” the shoemaker and creator said. “Let’s spot what’s successful here.”

Removing the apical of the box, he revealed 2 carved woody forms known arsenic footwear lasts that cobblers usage to make their wares. Beneath those were strips of yellowing footwear patterns and a tracing of the actor’s ft pinch a statement written successful loopy cursive:

To Pasquale
My happy feet shall convey you
— Anjelica Huston

The Di Fabrizio postulation includes footwear measurements for stars for illustration Nancy Sinatra, Kim Novak, Joe Pesci and Madeline Kahn, each adorned pinch green, achromatic and reddish striped ribbon.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“Cool, huh?” Francis said, gazing reverently astatine the box’s contents. “Every clip I unfastened 1 it’s amazing. It’s for illustration Christmas each the time.”

For the past 3 years, Francis has been surrounded by a sprawling archive of celebrated feet primitively amassed by Pasquale Di Fabrizio, the precocious shoemaker to the stars. From the early ‘60s to the early 2000s, Di Fabrizio created civilization footwear for the rich, celebrated and notorious retired of his humble footwear shop connected 3rd Street.

The shoes went to his customers, but his voluminous postulation includes footwear lasts, patterns, drawings, correspondences, leather samples and handwritten notes from thousands of clients, each stored successful cardboard footwear boxes that the Italian migrant trimmed pinch green, achromatic and reddish striped ribbon.

The names, written successful bold Magic Marker connected the beforehand of each container are a who’s who of entertainers from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and beyond: Liza Minnelli, Tom Jones, Richard Pryor, Robert De Niro, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bea Arthur, Arsenio Hall, Nancy Sinatra, Ace Frehley. The database goes connected and on.

Francis recovered ft measurements, woody footwear lasts and a footwear successful advancement that Pasquale Di Fabrizio made for Ginger Rogers successful a container marked pinch her name.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“Shoe Machine” is 1 of Chris Francis’ creation pieces that he has shown astatine museums.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“So galore awesome group stood connected these pieces of paper,” Francis said, looking astatine the stacks of boxes about him. “Roy Orbison. Eva Gabor. Stella Stevens. Lauren Bacall. I could propulsion these down each day.”

Francis ne'er met Di Fabrizio, who died successful 2008, but successful 2022 he traded 2 pairs of his sculptural shoe-art pieces to Di Fabrizio’s friend and chap shoemaker Gary Kazanchyan for the entirety of the Italian shoemaker’s archive. Three years later, Francis is still making his measurement done it all.

The magnitude of worldly is overwhelming, but he is committed to preserving Di Fabrizio’s legacy. Ultimately, he wants to find a abstraction wherever he could stock it pinch others.

“I ne'er want to beryllium without it, but I’m realistic that it deserves to beryllium appreciated by much than conscionable myself,” he said. “If my life’s activity ended up successful somebody’s hands, I don’t deliberation I’d want them to conscionable support it for themselves forever.”

A shoemaker’s journey

Francis isn’t conscionable cataloging L.A.’s shoemaking history, he’s helping to support it alive.

Over the past decade and a half he’s made a sanction for himself arsenic a civilization shoemaker, creating handmade bespoke footwear for rockers for illustration erstwhile Runaways guitarist Lita Ford and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, arsenic good arsenic sculptural creation shoes that are displayed successful museums for illustration the Craft Contemporary, the Palm Springs Art Museum and SCAD FASH successful Atlanta.

Wooden footwear lasts bent from the ceiling arsenic Chris Francis useful connected a footwear for the vocalist Lita Ford successful his garage.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

In his East L.A. workshop, he eschews modern technology, focusing alternatively connected accepted methods of shoemaking, often pinch manus tools.

“The handmade footwear is live and good successful this shop,” he said, dressed successful pressed achromatic slacks and tinted sunglasses, chunky golden rings gleaming connected his fingers. “There’s nary machine here, and moreover the records half the clip are vinyls aliases 78s.”

Making shoes by manus is time-consuming and costly activity — Francis doesn’t waste a brace of shoes for little than $1,800 — but for his mostly musician clientele, a sturdy, custom-made, comfortable footwear that besides boasts over-the-top style is good worthy the price.

“At my value point, my customers are buying thing that’s really a tool,” he said. “It’s portion of their look, but it besides has to deed 27 guitar pedals, support each of its crystal, beryllium beautiful, past aggregate tours and they person to beryllium capable to guidelines successful it each night.”

Francis, who has a definite aging-rocker swagger himself, ne'er expected to go a shoemaker.

After going to creation schoolhouse and hopping freight trains for respective years, he moved to Los Angeles successful 2002 primitively to subordinate the Merchant Marines. Instead he recovered activity hanging multi-story graphics and s connected the broadside of hotels and high-rises connected the Sunset Strip and astatine casinos successful Las Vegas. “That gave maine the aforesaid thrill of riding a freight train,” he said. “Being connected a high-rise building and rappelling down.”

Francis recovered cloth samples and designs for shoes that Pasquale Di Fabrizio made for a Broadway accumulation of the philharmonic “Marilyn: An American Fable.”

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Shoemaker and creator Chris Francis makes shoes the accepted measurement successful his shop successful East Los Angeles.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

He discovered he had a knack for shape making successful 2008 erstwhile he began creating hand-stitched leather jackets to deterioration to the Hollywood parties he had started attending pinch his now-fiancee. One time a alien approached him and said she knew personification who would admit a overgarment for illustration the ones he was making. She was a stylist for Arnel Pineda, the lead vocalist of Journey. Commissions from Mötley Crüe and different stone bands followed.

A fewer years later he became willing successful making shoes, but though he knocked connected the doorway of respective footwear shops successful town, he couldn’t find a mentor.

“They didn’t person time, aliases they’d say, ‘You beryllium successful a stone and rotation band, you’re not 1 of us,’” he said. “But I would say, ‘Just thatch maine 1 thing, 1 trick.’ And everyone had clip to thatch 1 trick.”

It was an acquisition successful overmuch much than shoemaking.

“Almost each shoemaker I met had immigrated to the country,” he said. “So I learned really to make shoes from the Italians, from guys from Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Syria, from everybody. And while doing so, I learned about each these different cultures.”

‘He was the king’

As Francis dove deeper into the history of shoemaking successful Los Angeles, 1 sanction kept coming up again and again: Pasquale Di Fabrizio.

The precocious Pasquale Di Fabrizio, a cobbler to the Hollywood elite, photographed successful beforehand of his postulation of footwear lasts, circa 1982.

(Bret Lundberg / Images Press / Getty Images)

“I started asking different makers about him, and they were like, ‘Oh yeah, we retrieve him,’” Francis said. “He was the king.”

For much than 50 years Di Fabrizio was the about sought aft shoemaker successful Los Angeles. He made Liberace’s rhinestone-encrusted footwear and shod Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck for touring productions of Disney connected Parade. He was the go-to shoemaker for state occidental stars, Vegas showgirls, Hollywood movie stars, gospel singers and casino owners. The Rat Pack helped put him connected the map.

“My champion customer is Dean Martin,” Di Fabrizio told The Times successful 1972. “He buys 40 pairs a year.”

Sporting a thick, bristled mustache and oversize glasses, Di Fabrizio had a reliable reputation. He erstwhile kicked a movie prima retired of his shop because the prima brought backmost a brace of patent leather shoes that he claimed were defective. Di Fabrizio accused him of missing the urinal and peeing connected them astatine the Oscars.

“Never travel backmost present again,” he said successful his heavy Italian accent.

The shoemaker occasionally made location calls, but his customers mostly came to him. In his shop connected 3rd Street adjacent Crescent Heights, he would trace their bare feet connected a portion of insubstantial and measurement the circumference of each of their feet astatine the ball, about the arch, the bottommost and the ankle. Then he would customize a pre-carved woody past from Italy, adding bladed pieces of leather 1 millimeter astatine a clip to much perfectly mimic the unsocial style of the client’s foot.

The size and shapes of the lasts varied wildly. He erstwhile told a newsman that it took “half a cow” to make shoes for Wilt Chamberlain, who wore a size 15. In his archives, Francis recovered a petite precocious bottommost footwear past about the magnitude of his hand.

Francis holds a ft tracing and footwear lasts made for Robert De Niro by Pasquale Di Fabrizio.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“Di Fabrizio did tons of shoes for small people,” Francis said. “He really offered an important work for that community. They could person general footwear alternatively than having only the action of wearing kids shoes.”

The aforesaid lasts could beryllium utilized complete and complete again to make respective pairs of shoes, arsenic agelong arsenic the bottommost tallness was the same. Each past went successful its ain container dressed up pinch a ribbon successful the colors of the Italian flag.

“It’s truthful simple, but he claims his territory pinch that ribbon,” Francis said. “He cared capable to return 1 other step. It’s what really made that postulation iconic.”

A bequest preserved

Francis first encountered Di Fabrizio’s archives successful 2010 erstwhile Kazanchyan offered him a occupation astatine Andre #1 Custom Made Shoes connected Sunset Boulevard. Kazanchyan inherited the shop from his uncle, Andre Kazanchyan, who erstwhile worked pinch Di Fabrizio and became his bully friend.

Gary Kazanchyan and Di Fabrizio were adjacent arsenic well. When Di Fabrizio retired successful the early 2000s, Kazanchyan hired each of the guys who worked astatine his shop. Di Fabrizio was astatine Kazanchyan’s wedding and erstwhile the older shoemaker was successful a nursing location astatine the extremity of his life, Kazanchyan visited him each day.

For years Kazanchyan stored arsenic galore of the ribbon-trimmed boxes arsenic he could fresh successful his Hollywood shop, but conscionable earlier COVID he moved his shop to his car shed successful Burbank and transferred Di Fabrizio’s archives to his backyard. “At 1 point, my full backyard was this upland of footwear lasts,” he said.

Chris Francis, left, and Gary Kazanchyan astatine Palermo’s Italian Restaurant successful Los Feliz.

(Deborah Netburn / Los Angeles Times)

Kazanchyan started a renewal connected his location successful 2022 and could nary longer shop Di Fabrizio’s archive successful his backyard. He’d sold immoderate of the about celebrated footwear lasts astatine auction — a bundle of Di Fabrizio’s footwear lasts for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. went for $4,375 successful 2013 — but he still had respective tons of worldly stacked connected pallets and covered successful tarps. He remembered that Francis loved the collection, truthful he called him and asked if he wanted it. Francis did.

Francis didn’t person the money to acquisition the postulation successful cash, but he offered Kazanchyan 2 creation pieces that he’d exhibited and Kazanchyan accepted. The first carload of boxes Francis took to his workplace included lasts for Wayne Newton, Paula Abdul, Ginger Rogers, Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone.

“My excitement was connected fire,” he said.

Francis spent a fewer weeks sorting done the archive and discarding lasts and footwear boxes that were excessively covered successful mold aliases deteriorated to beryllium worthy keeping. Just earlier a rainstorm threatened the remainder of the collection, he brought thousands of footwear lasts to his workplace but moreover now regrets that he was incapable to prevention it all.

“I tried to drawback the large names, but location was truthful overmuch I couldn’t keep,” he said. “It was heartbreaking.”

The boxes clasp stories — and life lessons

Living and moving among the Di Fabrizio postulation has taught Francis a batch much than conscionable the creation of making shoes.

“I’m perpetually seeing the obituary of a personage who has passed and I spell to the shop and there’s their box,” he said. “It really lets you cognize that life is for the living. It’s up to you to beryllium responsible and unrecorded your life erstwhile you’re alive. Be yourself, thatch others, time off thing behind.”

Hanging onto the postulation has not been easy — but Francis believes he was chosen from beyond to attraction for Di Fabrizio’s archive and to stock it pinch others responsibly.

He’s still not judge what that will look like, but he’s wished to try.

And successful the meantime, he is besides wished to support the accepted creation of shoemaking live successful Los Angeles.

If you look about his workshop, you’ll spot respective boxes adorned pinch red, achromatic and bluish striped ribbon.

Francis is making those boxes his own.

Working pinch manus tools, Chris Francis makes a civilization brace of shoes for musician Lita Ford.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)