About us - Old House Provisions

The artisanal multi-brand shop that is Old House Provisions is more than just a way to share great brands with a Washington D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia area population bereft of them. It’s an incubator for a moribund shoemaking trade. When each pair of shoes takes ~180 hours to make, some barriers to entry are insurmountable without an initial period of subsidization. Rather than seeking grants or charity, I chose to build two businesses in one for the eventual goal of building a growing, thriving bespoke house in the USA.

Quitting my consulting job to become a shoemaker was not a decision I made easily. Aside from the loss in income, I was giving away a coveted position I was very lucky to have. Where was the dignity in giving up good fortune to struggle with a passion project most Americans know nothing about? As it turns out, the dignity was there all along, hiding under the guise of obscurity. It’s true that few Americans have any sense of the ~180 hours it takes to make a single pair of bespoke shoes – but that makes the opportunity to revive this craft all the more groundbreaking.

I’m chiefly inspired by the historic bespoke houses of London, Paris, and Florence. By outfitting the greatest men and women in history, they played a minor part in the course of human events and a major part in the course of longstanding fashion trends. We once had institutions like these in the US. I see no reason why we can’t have them again. Old House Provisions is the first step in this reconstruction.”