Cobbler has big shoes to fill

A local artist acquires the vast archive of Pasquale Di Fabrizio, shoemaker to the stars. Now he's following in Di Fabrizio's footsteps.

- BY DEBORAH NETBURN

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

CHRIS FRANCIS with his collection of wooden foot forms of celebrities' feet.

In an overstuffed workshop in East L.A., Chris Francis reached out a heavily tattooed arm and pulled a single shoe box from one of the floor-to-ceiling shelves lining the walls.

"Anjelica Huston," the shoemaker and artist said. "Let's see what's in here."

Removing the top of the box, he revealed two carved wooden forms known as shoe lasts that cobblers use to make their wares. Beneath those were strips of yellowing shoe patterns and a tracing of the actor's foot with a note written in loopy cursive:

To Pasquale

My happy feet shall thank you

- Anjelica Huston

"Cool, huh?" Francis said, gazing reverently at the box's contents. "Every time I open one it's amazing. It's like Christmas all the time."

For the last three years, Francis has been surrounded by a sprawling archive of famous feet originally amassed by Pasquale Di Fabrizio, the late shoemaker to the stars. From the early '60s to the early 2000s, Di Fabrizio created custom footwear for the rich, famous and notorious out of his humble shoe shop on 3rd Street.

The shoes went to his customers, but his voluminous collection includes shoe lasts, patterns, drawings, correspondences, leather samples and handwritten notes from thousands of clients, all stored in cardboard shoe boxes that the Italian immigrant trimmed with green, white and red striped ribbon.

The names, written in bold Magic Marker on the front of each box, are a who's who of entertainers from the ’60s, ’70s, 80s and beyond: Liza Minnelli, Tom Jones, Richard Pryor, Robert De Niro, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bea Arthur, Arsenio Hall, Nancy Sinatra, Ace Frehley. The list goes on and on.