Browsing category: Look who’s wearing

John has been flying helicopters for 15 years. His passion was sparked when he was a passenger on his father’s knee during boundary flights on the family farm.

He now flies for Heliwork of Queenstown New Zealand in a Squirrel helicopter manufactured in France by Eurocopter.

John told us “Flying helicopters is great in the respect that you never know what each day will bring in the variety of roles that we perform. A typical week of work might include anything; dropping wing-suiters from altitude to film a television commercial, search and rescue, firefighting, medical transfers at night using night-vision goggles, lifting building materials into mountainous areas for construction projects, back-country fishing transfers, scenic flights, shifting trampers in the National Parks in flood conditions, dropping off shepherds and teams of dogs for mustering on High Country Stations etc ….. No two days are ever the same!”

Andrew is a prolific fashion blogger.

Writing for both Mensflair and his own blog BespokeMe, his passion is finding independent menswear labels and retailers – which was why he was interested in us.

He spends a great deal of time trawling the internet and the streets of London searching out everything from shirt makers and tailors to Ivy League outfitters and vintage shops -with a few bars and restaurants thrown in for good measure.

Andrew recently interviewed me for BespokeMe. When we spent the day with Andrew in London he took us to some of his favourite London locations including bespoke suit mecca Savile Row and Jermyn Street, the home of some of the World`s finest shirt makers. He also took us to one of his favourite independent shirt makers Nino`s.

Obsessed by clothes Andrew says his own style is “classically orientated with touches of individuality to keep my look original and personal. Craftsmanship and value are also important considerations”.

Julian has been the MP for Canterbury and Whitstable since 1987 and was Shadow Minister for Shipping and Aviation up until the election in May 2010. Julian told us that for him being a Member of Parliament was all about “making a difference”. His twin passions are Defence and Child Welfare. In the past he`s campaigned to expose the misery many children suffer in local authority care, and sought improvements to fostering and adoption arrangements, resulting in the Adoption and Children Act 2002. When we met up with Julian at the House of Commons the Prime Minister had just appointed him to a Commission examining the future of UK`s Reserve Forces. Julian had himself served in the Territorial Army for 13 years.
In his spare time Julian is an avid historian, so it seemed fitting he should choose to wear the Herring Churchill.

Edward is a successful businessman in Asia who has become a huge fan of our shoes.

We were very flattered when Edward chose to wear our shoes for the most important day of his life – his wedding.

In his spare time Edward is a keen fashion blogger and studies Japanese shoe magazines to get a greater knowledge of handmade shoes.

Edward has more than a dozen pairs of our shoes including Henley, Chaucer and Shakespeare and provides us with terrific feedback on our shoes.

One of “Britain’s Best Dressed Men” as quoted by GQ & Esquire magazine.

Prince Cassius wears our purple Monarch house shoe and decided to use them for a recent photo shoot in London. He is a passionate ambassador of Herring Shoes and wore Harvey and Marlow whilst filming a recent BBC documentary on fashion.

We had a wonderful evening with him at London’s OXO Tower and heard his amazing life story from being born in the desert, to being voted as one of Britain’s Best Dressed Men.

Prince Cassius is a true gentleman. We suggest you watch out for him as you’ll be seeing a lot more of this up and coming fashion star!

Tristan Stone is the proud owner of Stones Boatyard, near Salcombe in South Devon, home of the famous “Salcombe Yawl”.

Jim Stone, Tristan`s father has been involved in boatbuilding and the marine industry in the U.K. for over 40 years. He is now based on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada.

Tristan continues the family tradition of hand crafting beautiful wooden clinker launches and Yawls.

Stones boat yard provide a comprehensive storage and maintenance facility for Salcombe Yawls and are pleased to announce that they are now the sole importer and UK distributor for the Van Wijk motor launch.

Matthew Fries, Phil Palombi and Keith Hall were brought together as the backing trio for jazz vocalist, Curtis Stigers, and toured extensively building up a level of musical communication that has become rare in the jazz world.

Their style has been compared to the music of the Bill Evans Trio, the Oscar Peterson Trio, and modern piano trios of Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea – these are all major influences to the band.

Herring shoes were proud to sponsor the Album Tri-Fi 3 which was recorded in New York. The new album is made up of entirely original compositions, and recorded with obsessive attention to sound quality.

“The trio are as smooth and sleek as you could ask, but when grit and grease and a little R&B are required, the musicians are never at a loss.”
– Clive Davis – The London Times

Listen to “Take what you want but don’t touch my Herring Shoes” below.

Robert is Managing Director of the E.J. Churchill Group Ltd which is one of the largest privately owned shooting businesses in the UK.

Rob started shooting when he was 4 on the family farm in North Yorkshire.

His accolades in the shooting world are that he won the European side by side championship in 2001 and captained the British University Shooting Team to success 4 years on the trot 1996 – 2001.

The shooting school is the largest in the UK and has been voted the best shooting ground in the country. E.J Churchill have about 50,000 + visitors a year who come for lessons and practice.

As well as the shooting ground they have one of the country`s largest sporting agencies, corporate events company (running about 300 events a year) and of course the very famous gun makers E.J. Churchill. They are still making guns today and the business originated in 1891.

Their English guns start at £54,000 + VAT and are one of the leading manufacturers of fine English guns in the world.

Leech Racing has a clear philosophy which underpins everything we do and has a proven track record in delivering results. We believe strongly in an individual approach, developing tailored training programmes for the specific needs of each horse. Leech Racing has been highly successful in improving horses where a larger yard has been simply unable to give them the time and focus required to unleash their potential.

Highly ambitious, we have a constant desire to improve and to provide the best possible results for our expanding list of owners. Our outlook is professional, flexible and approachable.

Sophie took out her full license in 2007, with her husband Christian as Assistant. Christian`s background as a BHA handicapper is an enormous asset and gives us the competitive edge in the placing of horses through understanding the handicapping system. This is vital in converting entries to winners.

Initially based in Oxfordshire we achieved early success with 10 winners from under 100 runners. Based in South Devon last season, we had our best ever season, growing our win / placings ratio and winning a prize fund in excess of £100k.

In October 2011 we relocated to Tudor Racing Stables in Gloucestershire, a fabulous, central location from which to build on our success.

Herring shoes are proud to be sponsors of Leech Racing.

The former England and Bath loosehead prop, played for Bath 126 times proving his worth time and time again.

David has transitioned since retirement into being a media pundit and presents the main terrestrial rugby union shows on Channel 5 in the UK. Covering the Rugby World Cup in Japan 2019 for ITV is a post-rugby career highlight to date.

He also has a very popular rugby podcast with his very close friend and former Wales international and Lion Tom Shanklin called Flats and Shanks.

Former Bath prop and RPA Chairman David Barnes joined The RPA full-time as Rugby Director in 2011 having played over 200 games for Bath since his debut against Harlequins in 2000. He is now responsible for issues including player welfare, contractual disputes and implementing the Player Development Programme.

He was tour captain for England Saxons at the Churchill Cup in 2006 and has a wide range of interests away from rugby, including scuba diving.

During the summer of 2009 he was appointed one of Bath`s five player representatives for the 2009-10 season and also took his place on the Rugby Football Union`s Image of the Game Task Group.

Chris Batchelor has been a presenter on Heart FM in Plymouth for several years and was kind enough to share his passion for radio with us. We visited him at the studio in Plymouth just as the station announced that they were trimming their services so Chris is now re-training as a hypno-therapist. We will be posting a link to his new website when we can to support Chris in his new career.

We are passionate about our shoes and we appreciate the passion that our customers have for their own fields and Chris is no exception.

Michael Caines MBE is considered one of the most brilliant chefs in the United Kingdom. His passion for cooking matches our passion for footwear so he was happy to show us around his stunning Gidleigh Park hotel whilst wearing his Herring Shoes. Michael can be seen wearing the Gladstone brogue, Brindisi boot, Torino Driving moccasin and Baker Street.

He has been cooking at Gidleigh Park, since 1994, and he and his team have held 2 Michelin stars since 1999. At the time, Michael was the youngest chef to achieve this high accolade. Michael is from Exeter, and spent formative periods of his career working with master chefs such as Raymond Blanc, Joël Robuchon and the late Bernard Loiseau.

At Gidleigh Park, Michael has created a very personal yet classic style of cuisine that utilises the finest West Country produce and ingredients to produce innovative and exciting modern European cuisine of the highest order.

In 2004, Michael went into partnership with Andrew Brownsword to found ABode, a fast-growing group of boutique hotels, all with Michael Caines’ dining establishments. Michael Caines was awarded an MBE in 2006 for Services to the Hospitality Industry and in 2007 he received the “AA Chefs` Chef of the Year 2007-2008” Award, voted for by his peers.

In 2010 Gidleigh Park was voted No 1 in Sunday Times top 100 restaurants.

Theo Started his career at 16 as a tea boy/filing clerk with Lloyds of London and by 23 he had set up his own company.

In the following years he purchased and turned around ailing companies like Movie Media Sports, Ryman, Contessa and La Senza.

He spent 8 years as Chairman of Millwall FC and was also a Director of the Football League and an FA councillor.

Recently he has been making investments as one of the Dragons in the TV series Dragons’ Den.

We met up with Theo to fit him with a selection of new Herring shoes for his upcoming new business TV programme and presented him with a Herring Valet box.

UPDATE: July 2014
We met Theo at his offices to catch up and fit him with some new shoes. The tweed bag and shoes definitely caught his eye.

David Bickerstaff is an artist and award-winning filmmaker who founded Atomictv in 1997. He was a member of the 2004 BAFTA judging panel for Interactive Art and is currently the Creative Director at Newangle Productions.

He has won various awards for his projects including an Insight Award for Excellence from the National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists in the US. David`s video and immersive works have been selected for festivals all over the world.

More recently David made the documentary ‘Making War Horse’ shown on More4. It features exclusive rehearsal and backstage footage of the stage production, interviews with the production team, the actors and puppeteers, and extracts from the award-winning show.

Gareth has had a passion for music for as long as he can remember, playing the piano and singing as a young child. He studied Drama at the University of East Anglia before attending The Royal Academy of Music where he passed with distinction in 2005.

Gareth is best known for his three hugely acclaimed BBC2 award winning series of ‘The Choir’. The programme has been awarded a BAFTA an RTS and a broadcast award. He has become an inspiration to those that come into contact with him and is still in touch with many of the singers from these projects.

Gareth’s favourite piece of music is the tenor aria ‘Geduld, Geduld’ taken from St. Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach.

Gareth also achieved a Christmas number one with the Military wives singing “Wherever You Are”.

Michael is a professional chauffeur who has being driving for businessman and entrepreneur Theo Paphitis for several years. He has always enjoyed driving and feels very fortunate to have a career doing something he is passionate about.

In the working week he drives a Maybach 62, 5.5 litre twin turbo V12. The 62 stands for 6.2 metres, which “is fun to manoeuvre round Greater London during rush hour”. The car is equipped with internet access so Theo can use it as an office while he travels around the UK.

Michael`s first car for driving Theo was a Mercedes C220 cdi and now he drives various cars including a Mercedes SL63 AMG which is the best car he’s ever driven. He also has a full HGV licence along with his fork lift instructor badges.

His proudest moment was raising funds for comic relief by pulling the Maybach for a mile along the Mercedes-Benz test track with two friends.

Charlie has been flying for over 30 years and has been flying Spitfires since 1990. He is an A1 Flying Instructor at the Central Flying School Cranwell.

The Spitfire pictured is a rare WW2 Mk.Vb Fighter built at Castle Bromwich in 1942. It served with 315 & 317 (Polish) Squadrons before sustaining damage on February 13th 1943. It was acquired by the Historic Aircraft Collection (HAC) in 1993 and restored to its original specification and flies in the colours of 317 Squadron. Spitfire BM597 can be found in Hangar 4 at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

The Spitfire has also starred in many films and TV productions including Battle of Britain, Time Team, Pearl Harbor, The Goodbye Plane and Foyles War.

Graeme is an elected member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (ARBS). Following his graduation from Loughborough College of Art & Design in 1995 he immediately set up his own stone carving workshop in Leicestershire.

He undertakes a whole variety of commissions from major public art sculpture to memorials. His work is exhibited throughout the UK and he also shows at some of the country’s leading home and garden exhibitions.

If you would like to commission Graeme or would like to learn how to carve on one of his weekend courses please use the link below.

Mark has been interested in coach painting since he was 17 years old. A couple of years ago he took the plunge and gave up his day job to do his passion for a living.

The tractor pictured is a 1941 Fordson and has taken 6 months to restore. The other vehicle pictured is a 1932 Allan Taylor golf course truck converted from a Model A Ford.

Mark and his terrier Dave regularly appear at vintage rallies and country shows.