A (Half) Greek Bearing Leather Gifts
Alexandra Van Berckel’s small Marylebone emporium is a minimalist delight with classic and colourful shoes to tantalise the boys and the girls
Article by Rupert Watkins Photography by Andy Barnham
The world of Northampton bench made and women’s court shoes is a far cry from the world of financial services. However, it is one that Alexandra Van Berckel has navigated with aplomb since she founded Pinucci in 2012. Originally very small, the firm was internet based and operating through pop ups in places such as Piccadilly and the King’s Road until the start of this year when her Marylebone shop opened.
Alexandra works with a number of factories in Northampton and Spain who make her shoes. She has worked with her Spanish factories since Pinucci came into being, developing her relationship with the English companies more recently over the past 18 months as she has expanded her range of Chelsea and brogue boots. A couple of men’s styles are still made in Italy but the vast majority of her shoe styles are now made in a small factory in Alicante. Moving forwards, Alexandra plans to have a 50:50 manufacturing breakdown between England and Spain for her men’s collection.
The core men’s styles, the Chester loafer and Bourne monk shoe come in up to 14 colours and have both been immensely popular over the last season – many colour options selling out. Alexandra, alongside her craftsmen in Northampton, has crafted a narrower last than is normal for Chelsea boots – more akin to jodhpur boots – to give a very elegant profile to her take on this classic footwear. The cap and heels are hand burnished and on her brogued Montagu range a French painting technique is also applied to add a lustre to the toecap.
Originally concentrating on men’s shoes, in 2014 Alexandra added a small range – four to five designs in different colours - of women’s heels and loafers. The business is still very male orientated at 85 to 15 per cent but more and more women are coming into the small and sleek shop. In response to this, the next collection will include women’s brogues and ankle boots. The court shoes are very classic in shape though Alexandra has added a distinctive and pretty Pinucci splay to the uppers. She has found the lower three inch heels to be the most popular though this season her higher heeled shoes have still sold out.
Coming to the luxury arena with a rather different background to many – Alexandra trained as an architect before working for a decade in financial services in various European offices – has proven to be of benefit. Having a passion for shoes and the dream to turn stray doodles into designing a collection, the skills Alexandra bought with her from the banking world have nonetheless been of great use. With almost 90 per cent of her time dedicated to the business side of Pinucci, the knowledge of business models and understanding of value chains and ratios has proven of immense benefit. The designing is undoubtedly the fun part as she says but as a one person band, the slightly less glamourous administration tends to overshadow this. Looking to visit her factory in Alicante about three times a year, gives Alexendra the chance to check lasts, leathers and visit the tanneries that her Spanish artisans source from.
From the beginning, Pinucci was to be an attainable level of craftsmanship. With her most expensive men’s boots sitting just under £200 and the women’s range between £110 – 170, this is excellent workmanship for a rather reasonable price. Alexandra has cut out all forms of middle men and wholesalers dealing directly with and building her relationships with the shoe manufacturers direct. Being a small one person firm also allows her to be flexible and responsive to fresh ideas, collaborations and potential manufacturing partners.
As well as her dapper and colourful monks and loafers, Alexandra also offers a range of suede leather trainers. A relaxed and stylish weekend or holiday option these have currently turned out to be amongst her most popular shoes for both men and women. Certainly even despite the ever increasing popularity of her snappy court shoes for women, even more head to her for relaxed, flat loafers and trainers.
The Pinucci Marylebone shop has proven a huge success and a very useful “lab”, in Alexandra’s words, to gauge customer’s reactions, wishes, desires as well as find out how they came across the brand. This provides valuable feedback for further designs and collections. Alexandra’s aim is to have a couple of collections each year. There are as yet, no plans for concessions, the plan is to make the shop the hub of the brand where service and customer satisfaction can be personally driven forward. She does though plan to continue to do pop ups when the right opportunity presents itself.
For a brand looking to have ever more of its wares made in England, the name is rather confusing – bringing to mind Italian craft and design. Laughing, the half Greek, half Nigerian Alexandra admits with a smile to “Pinucci” being her Greek grandmother’s nickname for her as a child. The firm is formally called Pinucci London to prevent people believing it to be an Italian designers. The stylish neo-classical logo is of the Greek goddess Athena (also the name of Alexandra’s daughter). Those on the hunt for dapper, colourful and elegant footwear should certainly wear out some old shoe leather heading to see her. 
Enquiries: Pinucci, 33 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2NJ / 0207 4865186 / [email protected] / http://www.pinucci.com/