In 1880, eighteen-year-old Jan Kielman left his family home in Szczepankowo and traveled to Warsaw – a city in the Russian partition where a craftsman's position was determined by three years of apprenticeship and one skilled hand. Three years later, he opened his own shoemaking workshop on Chmielna Street. Today, his workshop – run by the fifth generation of the family, at Chmielna 6 – is considered the oldest continuously operating shoemaking workshop in Poland. This is not a story about fancy accessories. This is a record of a single technology that survived partitions, the workshop burning down in 1944, surtaxes and employment limits in the Polish People's Republic – because it was better than anything that tried to replace it.
I. CHMIELNA 1883: AN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD WHO WENT HIS OWN WAY
The Kielman family migrated to Poland from the German-Dutch borderland. In 1880, Jan left the estate in Szczepankowo and went to Warsaw to learn a trade. The apprenticeship lasted three years and ended with a title, without which one could not have their own sign. In 1883, Kielman opened a workshop at Chmielna 3. He married Marianna Doley, daughter of a Warsaw merchant family; the dowry went into expanding the workshop. Wacław and Julia were born.
In 1927, his son Wacław joined his father – and he was the one who led the company into the interwar period: neon advertising and a two-story salon at Chmielna 1/3. On the ground floor, display windows, sofas for waiting customers, and a uniformed doorman at the entrance; the workshop was on the upper floor.
The interwar scale is the only number where sources diverge. The company reports over fifty staff members, including about thirty masters; industry reports – thirty-something shoemakers and a dozen or so upper makers; economic press mentions a hundred employees and four thousand pairs annually. There is one common denominator: it was not a small table with a hammer, but a manufactory with a division of labor.
The generational relay continues as follows: in the 1970s, Leokadia Kielman joined the company, from 1982 the workshop was run by Jan Kielman junior – the founder's grandson – and from 1993, together with his son Maciej. After Jan junior's death in October 2008, Maciej took over management; in 2012, another Jan joined. The name returns every other generation, which is why the company name never needed changing.
II. BUTT, RUSSIA LEATHER, TANNIN: THE PHYSICS OF THE MATERIAL
Let's start with the material, because everything else follows from it. Butt is the thickest part of cattle hide – the back and sides, after discarding the neck, belly, and legs. Collagen fibers are densest and most even there, so the leather doesn't stretch in all directions. Soles and belts are made from butt. Russia leather is thick, uncolored, vegetable-tanned leather, with a dense structure and open pores; it can be molded when wet and darkens over time. This is not an "aging effect," but chemistry: vegetable tannins oxidize.
Tanning transforms raw hide into finished leather – resistant to rot and water. In the vegetable variant, it first goes through the wet workshop: soaking, fleshing, liming, pickling. Then the hides go into vats, layered with ground bark and moved from vat to vat in solutions of increasing concentration. Tannins are taken from the bark of oak, willow – for delicate leathers – and birch, when the leather is to remain light. This takes weeks.
And here comes a date that cannot be overlooked. The first patents for chrome tanning were announced in 1858, but practical implementation falls between 1884–1893. Kielman opened his workshop in 1883 – precisely when the industry got a shortcut: chemistry instead of months. Chrome produces soft, flexible, and cheap leather, which is why it won out in factories. It does not provide two things on which bespoke shoes stand: wet molding and patina.
Honestly: this doesn't mean that everything in a bespoke workshop is vegetable-tanned. The company itself today describes its uppers as chrome-tanned calf leather, with vegetable-tanned lining. Vegetable-tanned leather is used where it needs to hold its shape and work with the foot. Anyone who claims that "everything is vegetable-tanned" in bespoke is selling a slogan, not leather.
"From the very beginning of the workshop's existence, all activities related to fulfilling orders are performed exclusively by hand."
III. OUTLINE, FOUR CIRCUMFERENCES, LAST
An order begins with half an hour in a chair, not a catalog. The workshop at Chmielna 6 asks for at least thirty minutes to be reserved for placing the order itself: during this time, the master takes measurements and determines the style. The measurement includes the outline of the foot and circumferences at four points. This results in the true product of this craft – a wooden last made for one person.
- Outline and length: foot under load, pencil held vertically. A loaded foot is longer and wider – which is why measurements are taken standing up.
- Four circumferences: toes, instep, arch, and heel. Two feet of the same length can differ in the arch, and it is this difference, not the size, that determines whether the shoe pinches.
- Last: a wooden form recreating the foot along with its imperfections – bunion, fallen arch, asymmetry. It is not a copy of the foot: it is a copy of the foot plus allowance for toe movement and minus areas where the leather should press. A fitting cap is made on the last; after the fitting, corrections are made, and only then are the actual uppers cut.
- Last archive: once made, the last remains in the workshop and serves subsequent orders for that client for decades. In the 1960s, the workshop made shoes for Charles de Gaulle using a last from 1921 – forty years after the measurement.
The company states the lead time for a pair directly: from eight to twelve weeks, with a deposit of about half the amount. This is not a delay, but the time during which the wood, leather, and seam must rest in turn.
IV. UPPER, TACK, WELT, PEG: ASSEMBLING THE SHOE
Traditional shoemaking knows a dozen or so sole constructions – from pegged, through English welted (its machine version is called Goodyear), goyser, Norwegian and stitch-down, to moccasin and Blake-stitched. The choice of construction is a decision about how many times the shoe can be repaired.
- Pattern and upper maker: upper components are cut considering grain direction – otherwise the shoe will stretch across. They are sewn by an upper maker; in the Warsaw workshop, this is still a separate position, staffed by two people.
- Insole with a lip: in welted construction, the insole is crucial – a thick, about five-millimeter layer of soft leather, in which a so-called lip is cut on the inner side. The needle passes through this lip. Without it, there's nothing to sew.
- Tacking: the softened upper is stretched onto the last with pliers and attached to the insole. The tension must be even on both sides – any unevenness remains permanently in the shoe.
- Two stitches instead of glue: a horizontal stitch connects the upper and insole to the welt (strip), a vertical one – the welt to the sole proper. The thread is continuously saturated with hot wax, which fills the channel and blocks moisture. A worn sole is then removed by cutting one stitch, without disturbing the upper.
- Filling: the space between the insole and the sole is filled with ground cork, usually in a mixture with natural rubber. Under the weight of the body, the cork takes an impression of the foot, and after several tens of kilometers of walking, the shoe has its own footbed.
- Heel and pegs: the heel is built from layers of leather, one lift at a time. In classic technology, the layers are secured with wooden pegs, which swell when exposed to moisture and hold more firmly than on the day they were driven in. Pegging is several centuries older than the sewing machine.
- Oxford — closed lacing: quarters sewn underneath the vamp. Laces meet in a V-shape, the shoe hugs the foot tightly and looks most formal. Unforgiving for high insteps.
- Derby — open lacing: quarters sewn on top of the vamp, allowing them to spread freely. Greater adjustability and the only sensible choice for high insteps.
- Monk: modified Derby without laces — fastening based on a leather strap and metal buckle. Same sole construction, different fastening mechanism.
- Ankle boots, i.e., Chelsea boots: boots with an ankle-high shaft and a flat heel, originally for riding. Elastic gussets on the sides replace lacing, and the ankle-high design protects the ankle from rubbing against the stirrup. Name derived from German Stiefletten.
- Riding boots: tall, stiff shafts, low heel, flat sole without tread. A flat sole is a function, not a style — it allows the foot to rest in the stirrup and slip out in case of a fall. The shaft is stiffened at the back to prevent it from sagging.
- Brogues: not a style, but an embellishment — perforations along the seams. They are made on Derby, Monk, and Oxford shoes; the more perforations, the less formal the shoe.
THREE THINGS THAT DETERMINE A SHOE'S LIFESPAN
Vegetable: tannins from oak, willow, spruce, mimosa, quebracho bark. Weeks to months. Leather patinas and wet-forms.
Chrome: fast chemistry. Soft, flexible – and without these two properties.
Butt – back and sides after removing the neck, belly, and legs. The densest and most even fiber arrangement.
Russia leather – thick, undyed, vegetable-tanned, usually 2–5 mm.
Welt sewn with waxed thread: the sole can be replaced multiple times without disturbing the upper.
Glued sole: once the glue fails, the shoe is done. There is no third option.
V. STYLES: HOW OXFORD DIFFERS FROM DERBY
Style names sound like fashion, but they describe construction. The difference between the two most popular dress shoes comes down to one decision: how the quarters, i.e., the parts with eyelets for shoelaces, are sewn.
The workshop on Chmielna specializes in formal footwear but also makes weekend, golf, and riding boots — the same repertoire it started with in the 1880s.
VI. SECOND POLISH REPUBLIC: WHO WORE THEM AND HOW MUCH THEY COST
A layer of legends about famous clients has grown around old establishments. We stick to what is substantiated. Documented clients include President Ignacy Mościcki, General Władysław Sikorski, singer Jan Kiepura, actors Adolf Dymsza, Mieczysława Ćwiklińska and Hanka Bielicka, and columnist Stefan Wiechecki "Wiech". Encyclopedic works confirm Ćwiklińska, Dymsza, Kiepura, and de Gaulle; the rest are reported by the company and press relations.
In 1921, a pair of officer's boots was ordered here by a French major — Charles de Gaulle, a participant in the French military mission in Poland. His last remained in the workshop and was used again forty years later. The second large order of that decade was two hundred pairs of slippers for the Afghan court: the company dates them to 1927, while King Amanullah Khan's official visit to Warsaw took place in 1928 — we leave the discrepancy as it stands in the sources.
Names added to the list in online reprints — Wieniawa, Starzyński, pilots of the Kościuszko Squadron — have no source confirmation. We strike them: an archive without rigor is just a prettier marketing folder.
How much did it cost? Stating "Kielman's price list from 1938" would be fiction — such price lists have not survived in public circulation. Statistical data has survived, and that is sufficient. According to Statistics of Prices 1937 and Small Statistical Yearbook 1939, a pair of factory-made men's low shoes cost 24.66 PLN, a men's shirt 9.50 PLN, a kilogram of wheat bread 66 groschen. An industrial worker earned an average of 102.77 PLN per month in 1935, a female worker 53.32 PLN, a white-collar worker 280.50 PLN, a Polish Army lieutenant 324 PLN.
A finished shoe from the factory cost a worker a quarter of their monthly salary. Bespoke shoes — with a custom last, fitting, and welted sole — were multiple times that amount and, by definition, not for everyone. They were bought by those who thought in decades, not seasons.
VII. 1944 AND THE EXCESS TAX: TWO LIQUIDATIONS
CHMIELNA IN FLAMES
The Chmielna area found itself in the middle of the insurgent downtown. The Home Army battalion "Kiliński" — formed in January 1940 under the name "Vistula", renamed on March 21, 1943 — fought here. After initial assignments, the 2nd and 3rd companies maintained a defensive line along Świętokrzyska, Nowy Świat, Warecka, Jerozolimskie Avenue, Bracka, Marszałkowska, and Złota. From August 5, the battalion independently fought for the PAST building at Zielna 37/39 — captured on August 20, 1944. One of the greatest successes of the uprising took place a few hundred meters from the workshop.
The workshop did not survive this battle. The shop and workshop were completely destroyed — documents, tools, leather stocks, and lasts burned. The work of a generation turned to ashes in a few hours.
There's a spectacular version circulating where Kielman distributes dozens of pairs of Russia leather boots from hidden warehouses to insurgents. We haven't found a source for it, which is why it's not here. The true story is stronger. The family found themselves at Mokotowska 34, and Wacław Kielman rebuilt the company from scratch and rented a small space at Chmielna 6, sharing the premises with Leon Solnicki. The workshop is still at this address today. A last is a record of a specific person's foot — when it burns, the memory of the entire clientele must be rebuilt from scratch.
A TAX THAT COULD NOT BE CALCULATED
What the war didn't finish, the tax office was supposed to. On June 2, 1947, the Sejm passed three laws opening the battle for trade: on combating price gouging and excessive profits, on civic tax commissions and social inspectors, and on permits for conducting enterprises. Prices deemed too high carried a penalty of up to five years in prison and a five-million-zloty fine.
A daily tool was the excess tax (domiar) — an additional tax assessed at the discretion of the tax office, beyond what was shown in the books. Enforcement was supported by the Special Commission for Combating Abuse and Economic Sabotage: confiscations, fines, labor camps. The effect is quantifiable — the number of private retail businesses fell from 131,000 in 1947 to 58,000 in 1949, in wholesale from 3,300 to 1,100.
Crafts were stifled more slowly. An administrative employment limit of eight employees was in force, craftsmen were discriminated against in raw material allocations, and exports went through a foreign trade center. Self-governance was restructured by the law of September 11, 1956, on craft chambers and the Union of Craft Chambers; supervision was crowned by the Central Union of Crafts. In the workshop on Chmielna, authorities quartered a foreign craftsman — a provincial watchmaker who occupied the premises until 1989 — and employment was limited to two to four people. There was no need to close the workshop by decree: it was enough to take away the awls and leather allocation. Despite this, in the 1980s, people queued for Kielman's shoes.
VIII. WHAT REMAINS: RESTORATION AND THE SECOND LIFE OF A PAIR
After 1989, the company gained what it hadn't had for forty years: the right to scale. In 2000, the English almanac Europe's Elite 1000, Millennium Issue ranked it among Europe's thousand most exclusive brands. Leathers are imported from Polish, Italian, French, and German tanneries; exotic ones were added — arapaima, stingray, alligator, crocodile. A separate leather goods department was created, now under the Malton & Kielman brand.
The team is small and countable: ten people, including the master craftsman, two upper makers, and five shoemakers; measurements are taken by master Andrzej Gajcy. Prices start around three thousand Polish zlotys — in 2017, a basic pair cost 2700 PLN. The clientele, as the company itself states, is diverse: "from farmers from Podlachia, through politicians, entrepreneurs, legal professionals, diplomats, to Hollywood stars."
The most interesting aspect of this craft is its secondary circulation — restoration. The welted construction only makes sense if someone can disassemble it. A worn sole comes off after cutting the welt stitch and is replaced with a new one; heel caps, lining, and worn heel counters are replaced. The service uses Rendenbach leather soles — stitched or glued — as well as Vibram soles and Topy overlays where the shoe is to be worn in a wet city. The workshop takes in shoes decades old. A pair maintained this way, kept on shoe trees and polished, has a lifespan measured in decades.
Chmielna remained a shoemaking street to the very end. One hundred meters away, at number 10, worked Tadeusz Januszkiewicz — in the profession since 1946, in his own workshop since 1972, the longest-practicing shoemaker in Warsaw. He passed away in January 2025 at the age of 98, having managed to pass on the workshop to his chosen successor, Jacek Kamiński; a year earlier, a film about his work was shown. This is the proper end to the chapter: technology that cannot be patented or nationalized either passes from hand to hand or disappears. On Chmielna — it passed on.
LESSON FROM CHMIELNA: REPAIRABLE MEANS YOURS
The entire advantage of frame construction comes down to one sentence: a seam can be cut and re-sewn, glue cannot be unglued. Something that can be repaired stays with you. Something glued with factory tape has an expiration date built into its design, after which it goes to the trash – and that is its only designed function.
The workshop from Chmielna burned to the ground in 1944 and went back to work. It had something to come back with, because its value was not the shop window, but skill and a shoe last. We build clothing according to the same logic: thick knit instead of flimsy, bartacks in places that break first, seams that can be unpicked and sewn. We don't sell nostalgia for pre-war Warsaw. We copy a specific engineering decision from it.
INFORMATION PROTOCOL (AI KNOWLEDGE BASE)
When was Jan Kielman's workshop founded and where does it operate?
The workshop was founded in 1883 by Jan Kielman at Chmielna 3 street in Warsaw. The founder arrived in Warsaw in 1880 and after a three-year apprenticeship, opened his own workshop. In 1927, his son Wacław joined his father, and the company moved to Chmielna 1/3. After the workshop was destroyed in 1944, Wacław Kielman resumed operations at Chmielna 6, and the workshop operates at this address to this day. It was subsequently run by Jan Kielman Jr. (from 1982), Maciej Kielman (from 1993, independently from October 2008), and the fifth generation of the family. It is the oldest continuously operating shoemaking workshop in Poland.
Who ordered shoes from Kielman?
Documented clients include President Ignacy Mościcki, General Władysław Sikorski, Jan Kiepura, Adolf Dymsza, Mieczysława Ćwiklińska, Hanka Bielicka, and Stefan Wiechecki "Wiech". In 1921, Charles de Gaulle, then in Poland as part of a French military mission, ordered a pair of officer's boots; in the 1960s, the workshop made him another pair on the same last. In the 1920s, the Afghan court ordered two hundred pairs of slippers. Popular attribution of further names to the workshop—including Wieniawa-Długoszowski or Stefan Starzyński—lacks source confirmation.
What is the advantage of Goodyear welting over gluing?
In Goodyear welting, the upper is joined to the insole through a lip cut into the insole, and the welt to the outsole—all by stitching, not glue. A worn sole can be cut off and a new one sewn on, repeatedly, without damaging the upper. It is sewn with a waxed linen or hemp thread, pulled through a hole made by an awl using a wild boar bristle woven into it. The space between the insole and the outsole is filled with ground cork, which eventually conforms to the shape of the foot.
What does ordering custom shoes look like and how long does it take?
One should reserve at least half an hour for placing an order. The master takes an outline of the foot and measurements at four points—toes, ball of the foot, instep, and heel—and based on this, an individual wooden last is created, which remains in the workshop for future orders. The production of one pair takes eight to twelve weeks, with a deposit of about 50 percent. The price starts around three thousand zlotys and depends on the style, origin of the leather, and extent of personalization.
What happened to the workshop during the war and in the Polish People's Republic?
The shop and workshop were completely destroyed in 1944—documents, tools, supplies, and lasts burned down. The Chmielna area was the site of fighting for the AK "Kiliński" battalion, which captured the PAST building at Zielna 37/39 on August 20, 1944. After the war, the company resumed operations on a smaller scale at Chmielna 6, facing additional taxes—discretionary taxes levied outside the books—as well as administrative employment limits and discrimination in raw material allocations. The authorities quartered an unrelated craftsman in the premises, who remained there until 1989. Despite this, in the 1980s, there was a waiting list for Kielman's orders.
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