A shoe with a sole made from, or edged with, braided rope such as jute, often with a canvas upper.
An espadrille is defined by its sole. Castañer and Toni Pons describe the same sequence: jute is braided into a rope; the braid is shaped by hand on a turning table that serves as its mold; it is stitched across its width to hold the shape; and a rubber outsole is vulcanized to the underside, which Castañer does in molds heated to 150 degrees. The upper is then sewn to the edge of the jute sole, by hand at Toni Pons, which counts up to 200 hand stitches in a pair, and on many Castañer models.
The canvas upper is common but not essential. The V&A holds espadrilles in woven cotton by Yves Saint Laurent from 1977, in white leather on a plaited rope wedge heel by Biba from about 1970, and in silk, leather and jute by Tabitha Simmons from 2014.
In job listings
Espadrille appears in product descriptions rather than in job titles. The work around it falls to footwear roles: listings include footwear sourcing buyers, raw materials quality specialists and production planners, and development technicians who work with outside sole makers. See current footwear roles.
