Nine days.Six pairsof hands.
Orate runs two benches. Leather work happens in Kanpur, where the tanneries are, and assembly happens in Chennai. Nothing is cut until an order is close, which is why a size can be gone for a fortnight and then back.
Clicking
Panels are cut by hand from the hide, around its scars, so the grain runs the same way on both shoes of a pair. A hide yields four pairs if it is a good one.
Lasting
The upper is soaked, pulled over a wooden last and left on the form for two days. Skipping this is why cheap shoes lose their shape in a month.
Closing
Linings go in unwaxed linen thread. A closed pair carries roughly 2,400 stitches and you are meant to see almost none of them.
What we will not do
We do not paint edges. Burnishing them by friction takes longer and is the reason the colour does not flake off a year in.
We do not run more than two benches. A third would mean a supervisor instead of a maker, and the stitch would tell you.
We do not discount a current run. If a pair is reduced it is because the run is ending, and it will say so.