Hand Gathering

In Marsèll footwear, the human touch meets raw material to create workmanship of the highest quality. One example is hand gathering, a technique that shapes different sections of the upper through its distinctive rippled effect.

To achieve this result, Marsèll’s master makers follow a precise process. They first skive or split the leather, reducing its thickness to make it softer and easier to work. They then move on to gathering, through which the leather acquires its characteristic ripples. This entirely manual operation may be carried out either by gathering the leather directly with the fingers or by pulling one end of a thread sewn with long stitches, carefully ensuring that the gathers are distributed evenly and harmoniously across the surface.

In its loafers, Marsèll elevates hand gathering into a defining feature. In some styles it is applied to the heel, enhancing the shoe’s comfort. In others it is applied to the upper: the smooth, clean surface of the vamp covering the toes merges with the gathered apron beneath through stitching, creating a striking contrast that highlights both the essential purity of the design and the exceptional quality of the leather.