Tradition And Modernity Of Embroidered Shoes In Small Gardens

There is an embroidered shoe store with a history of nearly 70 years in the west gate of the youth gathering place in Taipei, Taiwan. This embroidered shoe store is the small garden of Taiwan's famous old shop.

From the exit of No. 6 exit of Simon station in Taipei MRT, a small shop on the Emei street, with the red lettered wood on the bottom of the signboard, carved "small garden women shoes company". The new women's shoes and the vicissitudes of the years are displayed in the window, passing through the crowd easily overlooked.

But if we enter the shop, we will find peony, Phoenix, chrysanthemum, plum blossom, bright red, purple, green and bright yellow. The 15 storefront shops will be very lively, just like the shop name "small garden".

The inheritance of handicrafts and family businesses is also seen in the streets of Taipei in 2004. The long story goes back to Shanghai in 1936.

Now little garden boss Chen Hongyi's grandfather, Chen Chu, learned a small garden embroidery shop in the four street of Shanghai.

"My grandfather is a shoe master, carrying a burden to wealthy rich businessmen, warlords and noble families, and ordering embroidered shoes for his wife and ladies at home."

Chen Hongyi recalls the scene when Grandpa was running a shoe store. "At that time, the woman was wearing several new clothes made by him, and came to the master to choose shoes, pick colors and make new shoes.

If you wear it one or two times without wearing it, give it to your servant girl, or your grandfather will bring it back and sell it again. "

In 1949, when he moved from Shanghai to Taiwan, Chen Jia still did the work of embroidering shoes. He opened a shop in Chengdu Road, Taipei. During the heyday, there were 7 embroidered shoe shops in Taipei. Unfortunately, this kind of glory came to the last century in 80s. Other embroidery shoes shops closed because they could not meet the trend of the times, leaving only one small garden.

As an only child, Chen Hongyi took the small garden by accident. He learned mechanical design at first, but later he picked up his father's embroidered shoe store.

"At that time, the idea was so simple that we could not let the shop name of" little garden "disappear.

Just because he did not give up his ancestral inheritance, and grew up in a small way, he was familiar with colors and tricks. He took the family business in a logical way. It was two or thirty years.

The 60 years of shoemaking in the small garden has been passed down to this generation, showing not only the deep shoe making effort, but also the unique style of persisting in tradition and facing the trend.

The new works, which are often one of the brightest eyes, make the small garden not to fall for decades, but also make the shop name the representative of today's embroidered shoes.

After walking through the low tide, the small garden of embroidered shoes and old shoes, which was once more than half a century ago, was once again reached the bottom of the valley. The shop was full of embroidered shoes that could not be sold, and a peony and chrysanthemum on the vamp, and a phoenix and Dragon were stored in the warehouse for many years.

Interestingly, the unsalable shoes or the shoes worn by Chen boss are received by Chen's wife. The boss also laughs that he should try to pick up some large size shoes for guests to try on, because his wife is big enough to wear his shoes as long as they are old.

Ten years Hedong, ten years of Hexi, small garden has not been eliminated by fashion. It was possible that the Museum of history could see embroidered shoes.

Beginning in 1999, a revival of antique winds was blowing in Taiwan. The embroidered shoes became the classic classics of revival. Fashionable fashion, jeans and embroidered shoes showed women's delicacy and gentleness.

At that time, the shoes of the small garden could be sold out even on the shelves. But the boss Chen who was always comfortable with himself always opened the shop at 12 noon, closed at 6 p.m. and rushed to the little garden which was restored to the ancient wind. The shop was not open yet, and there were customers waiting in line. In the afternoon, some people begged the boss to close later.

However, embroidered shoes are not the same as ordinary leather shoes, sneakers and cloth shoes. They can not help but wear around 50 times, so the cost and the price can not be too high. Now the price of the traditional embroidered shoes in the small garden is priced at NT $500, and the most expensive one is not more than 1200 yuan, which is equivalent to the half price of the fashionable shoes.

Chen boss is also working hard on cost control. At present, he is responsible for buying materials and designing patterns, and then hand over to familiar master embroiders. The embroidered vamp is handed over to the cooperating cloth shoes processing factory to make sole. All the pieces are paid by the piece, and each shoe is made up of only 25 pairs.

No advertising, no marketing, no publicity, Chen boss alone in business, relying on exquisite skills.

In order to keep pace with the times, if the embroidery shoes are invariable, even if they are exquisitely made and handmade, they will not last long.

Now, in addition to seeing the traditional embroidered shoes and indoor slippers left by his grandfather and father, Chen also changes the function and material of his shoes, and introduces improved embroidered shoes.

"Like this kind of outdoor embroidered slippers, with embroidered vamp, middle bottom and inner leather, and plastic soles, I designed them."

Or to play tricks on the toe of the shoe, bring the fashionable square heads and sharp points into the mix, and match them with flat bottomed, high heels and fine heels, so that the embroidered shoes of the small garden can be popular and fashionable.

In the window, a pair of dragons and Phoenix dances on the red velvet upper shoe. It is also the masterpiece of Chen boss's "big red sedan chair", which is constantly creative, hoping to match the wedding gift shop and open up the market.

In the tradition, innovation is the reason for standing firm. Chen boss, in order to catch the hearts of young consumers in the West Gate Business District, and to adapt himself to the fashion trend, he is still reading the popular magazines at more than 60 years old.

He said that the embroidered shoes made of tannin cloth and flannelette face doll shoes were all improved by his observation of the market. He was loved by young people and his market reaction was quite good.

Unlike traditional embroidered shoes, denim and flannelette must be embroidered with mechanism, and embroidery thread is also converted to cotton thread.

However, for the fashion trend, Chen boss sometimes can not understand the clue. There is a magazine from head to toe all military uniform camouflage, let him full of confidence, made 50 pairs of camouflage slippers in one breath, but the market reaction is somewhat cold.

In the past, "diplomatic units" often presented foreign guests with embroidered shoes from small gardens, so that foreign guests could feel the charm of Chinese tradition. In addition, celebrities such as Judy Ongg, Cai Qin and Vivian Hsu were also celebrities. Celebrities such as Gu Zhen Fu's family, Lian Zhan's mother, James Soong's Chen Wanshui and so on were all the lovers of small garden embroidered shoes all the year round.

According to Chen's boss, visitors to the small garden range from 18 to 80 years old. They can be roughly divided into 4 categories: one is the old lady who is very old and has an old fashions; the other is the old lady who wears wooden clog and has no chance to try embroidered shoes in the past; the third is the fashionable young woman who follows the fashion, and the last one is the Japanese tourists who come to Japan.

At one time, 4 of the revenue from the small garden came from Japanese tourists. It was conceivable that the Japanese speaking room was constantly stirring up scenes.

The shop in the small garden still maintained its appearance for more than 20 years ago. The decoration of the wood has been dappled. Even the sofa chairs that try the shoes wear out the traces of time.

An old desk is for the counter. Under the glass mat, there is a NTD / D / C comparison table. A Chinese, Japanese and European shoes size comparison table is all written by hand.

With a small garden with thick palaeo flavour, how do we go on next?

The old shop of Xiao garden has never thought of pformation. Some people suggested that small gardens should be stationed in department stores or shopping centers.

For a lot of suggestions, Chen boss calculated that it is really not enough cost. In the current market boom and market trend, embroidered shoes can not be regarded as the mass market, coupled with the complexity of shoe making, slow work and meticulous work, can not achieve economies of scale, whether it is pformation or expansion of scale is not very easy.

"I am very contented, and the house is my own, and no staff, so I can live well."

If Chen Hongyi hadn't been able to maintain the business of "one person, one shop" for more than 20 years, the small garden embroidered shoes might have become a historical term.

Xiao garden is faced with a rapidly changing and uncertain future, and no one can predict this term.

However, it is certain that the decades passed by the small garden have witnessed the integration of tradition and modernity.