Mattina is the best classic dress shoe brand in China, I know many would say ACME is more luxury, yes, product wise, I admit, however as a brand, Mattina is much more rounded. I am not a huge of fan of boots, among three most classic ones, Chelsea, Chukka and Jodhpur, I own the former two, and Suppe from Mattina fill the vacancy up.
Let us have a look at this pair.
Unboxing
I mentioned many times the logo seems too small and this time because the shoe box is even larger to host a pair of boots, logo is smaller.
Remove the cover, there is a card on top which has the model photo and name.
Franz von Suppe is an Austrian musician with masterpiece Leichte Kavallerie.
The photo gives me a feeling that the last is quite elongated, I know that boots favour longer last to compensate its height near the ankle.
On the back of this card, it has all information you need and needn’t to know about this pair of boots, last is N-L, N is my favorite square toe last, L means long. Construction is Goodyear. Leather is Vocalou 5321 from French tannery Annonay which is the official partner of Mattina. Vocalou is very popular in classic dress shoes field, 5321 is the colour.
Unwrap print paper and we see wooden shoe horn and navy shoe bags.
Last
Design of Mattina shoes is entirely covered by ZHAO Ruoda who graduated from Stefano Bemer studio, and translated Handmade Shoes written by Laszlo Vass, the founder of Hungarian shoemaker Vass. He immerses himself into shoemaking and almost avoids media exposure.
I saw some his bespoke works long time ago and don’t feel strongly impressed, however, lasts and patterns of Mattina are the best in China without a slight exaggeration.
I think a good criteria to determine the soundness of a last is looking at it from all angles. Take an example, Frenchmen love sharp and long lasts, comparing to Italian elongated lasts, they are even more aggressive. However Corthay and Aubercy are so good looking no matter whether you love sharp or not.
Lasts of Mattina seem very conservative by the first sight, but like so many conservative and classic things, that is also the reason they last long.
Top view tells the last is 80% English and 20% Italian.
From inner side, the whole shoe has smooth lines everywhere, and the outer is quite enough to accomodate Asian wide feet.
Ankle runs from top to bottom is very three dimensional.
Pattern
Jodhpur is already a very high end and playful model, to make it even more unique is not easy and till now I only know J.FitzPatrick achieves it.
Mattina plays this model only with a rich burgundy colour, pattern is untouched.
Leather
Vocalou is a very stable collection from Annonay and the creases are very satisfactory.
Outsole
Classic design.
Details
The lining is very unique as this model was released just before Chinese New Year, so lining is red and sock lining has a slogan.
Conclusion
Jodhpur boots may not be everyone’s choice, but Mattina definitely is.