Inside NYC’s Best Shoe Stores: Carmina Shoemaker’s Perfect Luxury Chelseas

Four years ago, I reviewed Carmina’s famous Chelsea boots, and in 2022, I visited the Spanish island of Mallorca for an opportunity to check out their factory and learn how they make them.

Why? There’s just so much to like about Carmina: the history (it predates the Goodyear welt), the heritage (the company is run by the great-grandson of the company’s founder), and the way they design dressy European-style footwear with very slim Goodyear welt builds, making them more durable than the more common Blake stitch construction without resulting in the bulky look that Goodyear welts can produce.

Recently, I sat down with Alexis Almazo, the manager at their 53rd and Madison Avenue store in NYC, to get a closer look at their flagship Manhattan headquarters.

What’s Carmina Shoemaker About?

• They are known for making dress boots like wholecut Chelseas and balmorals, but they also offer more casual shoes like derbys and loafers.
• They emphasize Goodyear welted footwear over the Blake stitch construction that’s more common in this area.
• Their footwear is sold in over thirty different lasts, so almost any foot shape can be accommodated.

There are three main points to highlight about Carmina: the construction, design, and materials.

“No matter what the style, all of Carmina’s footwear is made on the Spanish Island of Mallorca, known for its tanneries and fine leather-making,” Alexis explained, “Mallorca was also one of the first places in the world to use the superior Goodyear welting method to produce shoes — and it’s used for all of Carmina’s footwear.”

To make sure you can get great-fitting and stylish boots or shoes, they have 47 proprietary lasts: 33 for men and 14 for women.

They’ve also finely honed their supply chain to provide the finest leathers for dressy shoes, which includes half a dozen kinds of calfskin in every color you can imagine, exotic leathers like alligator and peccary, and shell cordovan from Horween Leather Company — considered by many as the greatest producer of this luxury material.

Carmina and the Dressy Chelsea

Without a doubt, my favorite shoe from Carmina is their Chelsea boot in the Simpson last — and its a customer favorite as well.

“The model 80216 is our bread and butter,” Alexis told me. “In most cases, you have some Chelsea boots where you really can’t dress them up or dress them down, (but) these Chelseas are a lot more versatile.”

Carmina’s Chelseas are made from top-of-the-line materials like box calf leather (more on that below) or cordovan, whereas a lot of Chelsea boots are made from more durable, heavily oiled leathers (think Blundstone) or casual leathers like suede.

Chelseas are rarely chunky, but they’re usually best suited for smart casual wear. Carmina’s, meanwhile, combines a sleek last, leather sole, and chromey calfskin to make what we consider the best Chelsea for a suit.

Why are Dress Shoes Made of Box Calf Leather?

The high-quality box calf leather also lends to the dressier appearance. Box calf, as you may know, is the highest-quality calfskin leather available.

When I asked Alexis why box calf is such a good dress leather, he gave me a few reasons:

1. It has an extremely fine grain, which gives it a smoother texture and a more luxurious look than most leathers on work boots or even cheaper dress shoes.
2. It’s very durable and resistant to scratches and water. A good pair of box calf shoes can be worn for thousands of hours and only improve with wear.
3. Box calf leather acquires a rich, deep patina as it ages, giving it a warm and timeless look. In comparison, lots of leathers just look dirtier and more worn with age. (An exception is black leather, which doesn’t pick up those highs and lows.)
4. Box calf leather tends to feel softer to the touch than other calf leathers.
5. Box calf leather is easy to polish because of its relatively smooth texture, and it retains polish better than other smooth materials used in footwear.

“If you’re looking for something very durable, as well as something that you can dress up in and go to a wedding, then this is probably the best material for you,” says Alexis.

Carmina’s 47 Shoe Lasts

For those who don’t know, a shoe last is the name for the foot-shaped model that footwear is built on. Brands spend a tremendous amount of time and resources developing their lasts, which dictate how the shoe fits. This is where it’s decided how much a model with emphasize style, comfort, formality, ergonomics, and/or durability. In a world where most brands have access to the same materials, the last is what sets them apart.

Carmina currently designs footwear around 47 lasts for men and women, a number that Alexis notes is growing all the time.

“Some lasts are gonna be a bit more classy or classic, such as the Inca and the Detroit, which is built for an American foot — wider in the toe box.” Alexis explained, “Then we have lasts that are a bit more traditional English, such as the Forest. That one has a rounded toe, high in step, pretty roomy across the toe box as well.”

Several of Carmina Shoemakers’ other most popular lasts include:

• Marivent – A last made specifically for moccasins.
• Oscar – An American style with a roomy, rounded toe area.
• Rain – A slightly more casual “sister last” to the Simpson last.
• Soller – A long and narrow last with a rounder toe perfect for semi-sport models.
• Uetam – A rounded last designed for loafers. Its name is a backward spelling of its namesake, Mateu, a Mallorcan opera singer.
• Xim – A practical and durable last with a rounded design meant for Kiowas.

Balmorals: The Other Dress Boot

We talk a lot about their dressy Chelseas but it’s fair to say the kind of dress boots is the Balmorals. The closed lacing system is common on dressier footwear, like Oxfords. They’ve got a sleek silhouette, oxford style lacing, blind eyelets, low-profile soles, and you can get them in black box calf — all traits of dress shoes.

Alexis introduced the Balmoral Boots as “Oxford shoes transformed into boots,” and I’d say that’s a pretty apt description.

How much you can dress up a boot depends on the amount of ornamentation, the type of leather, and the color.

But you can dress them up if you get them in a black box calf. And if you get them in suede or a lighter brown, they make for great business casual or smart casual boots.

Carmina’s exotic leathers

One thing I like about Carmina is the wide range of leathers available. For example, Carmina uses:

• Cordovan from Horween, a Chicago-based tannery.
• Alligator and crocodile skin, for those happy to pay four figures for their footwear.
• Lizard skin, which is similar to alligator but has a more tightly packed and uniform scaling pattern; a decent option for dressy footwear.
• Peccary, a member of the pig family, which is uncommonly soft and breathable, especially for its durability.

Wrapping up

The most impressive part of Carmina Shoemaker to me is the store’s diversity. I’ve talked a lot about the boots in this post, but it also has a really wide range of shoes and my favorite dressy loafer.

Thanks to their jaw dropping array of lasts, Carmina also excels at more casual footwear like moccasins and derbies.

Carmina is my pick for the finest dressy footwear in New York City, and it’s definitely worth a visit.