THE SALE begins on Saturday 19th December.
Up to 50% off sale shoes and 10% off non-sale shoes for newsletter subscribers.

Dear All,

As I write, Tiger Woods has mistress number six coming out of the woodwork, and by the time you read this, it could easily be the full 18. The best joke I heard on this (a bit like the tallest man in Borneo), was when his wife was asked by police how many times she hit him, she said, "I can't remember exactly, but put me down for a five". Boom Boom.

It’s not that funny, but my son got an ear infection within about 10 seconds of arriving on holiday this summer, so I took him to the hospital for a check up. When the nurse asked him which ear it was, he replied "2009?"

Life in the Kings Road goes on without Sola, who finally went about three years after announcing he was leaving. We now have Nurtac who is much prettier than Sola and has already started to organise us.

Our winter shoes arrived very late this season for reasons too dull and stressful to mention, but it means that if you come to the sale you will see a lot of new things. Brogues are big this year, so we have plenty of them but we also have a gorgeous patent Whole Cut for Black Tie do’s, some simple high shine classic Gibson work shoes and two lovely soft desert boots, one in suede and one in burnished calf – perfect with denim.

The sale starts pre-Christmas this year for the first time and , as usual, there will be big reductions. Howard has persuaded me that everyone who gets the newsletter should get 10% discount on all non sale shoes during the sale. Also, new summer styles will be in very early January and will feature several made by our Italian shoemakers in Florence, including more luxury sneakers and a lovely boat shoe, as requested by many of you.

OK, here are five things we’ve learnt about since last time:

1. To see the cutting edge of retailing, take a day trip to Shoreditch. Start with lunch at either "Pizza East" on Shoreditch High street, "St John Bread and Wine", at 26 St John Street or "The Carpenters Arms" at 73, Cheshire Street then visit "Start" on Rivington Street, "The Three Threads" at 47, Charlotte Road, "Folk" on Dray Walk, "When We Were Casuals" also on Dray walk and "Albam" at 111 Commercial Street, all within a short walk of each other. Its really worth taking a look, as this area is the new Notting Hill.
2. Rapidly changing tack, one of the nicest experiences I've had in ages was meeting a friend at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park on the way home. Rather than sitting in a pub for hours, we went to see the Jeff Koons exhibition, a quick coffee in the lovely outdoor café and back home in time to do my evening jobs for the missus. At the moment they have a great exhibition called Design Real. www.serpentinegallery.org
3. Here's a nice one if you live out west. In Hammersmith there is a lovely garden centre called Ginko with a very groovy café and a new shop called Bird inside a railway arch. The shop is really gorgeous and sells reclaimed and re-loved furniture and household artefacts. I saw some old biscuit tins that my mum used to have when I was a wee lad and I called her, excited that she might want them for old times sake – she said no thanks, I never liked them. www.ginkgogardens.co.uk
4. The other night me, the missus and the kids decided to have a takeaway and, as usual, an enormous fight over the type of food. Luckily someone had told us about www.planeatworldfood.com, a great food delivery service that solves the problem, so I could have my papadums and my daughter could have her beloved crispy duck.
5. Finally, three publications to read if you want to keep up. www.selectism.com is a great daily online lifestyle publication, the Sartorialist http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com is the latest fashion blog for men and women that features people in the street looking cool and wearing interesting clothes and Apartmento Magazine www.apartamentomagazine.com is an interiors magazine that features real houses and apartments for inspiration instead of studio set up interiors.

There we go, that’s it for now. Thanks again for buying our shoes, we are extremely grateful, please follow us on Twitter if you like that kind of thing and please come see the sale and the new collection whenever you are in our neck of the woods.

Tim

THE SALE begins on Saturday 27th June. Up to 50% off.

Dear All

I was out recently with a bunch of Dads and sons on a bonding trip. The dads were sat around a table drinking coffee when one of the boys came over and aimed a question at one of the dads. We all looked up… “David, is it true that Suzie (his wife) can balance spoons on the end of her boobs?” Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Well, another horrendous six months has passed us by since the last newsletter. I don’t even care that much about MP’s expenses or that the Government is in total meltdown, personally I’m more concerned that Stavros Flatley was a finalist in a competition called “Britains Got Talent”, how crushingly depressing, surely now its time to leave the country.

Anyway, the Sale begins on Saturday 27th June and, as usual, there will be plenty of opportunity to pick up a lovely pair of shoes at an even lovelier price, some will be 50% off or more.

If you are totally without anything to do in your life, you can follow us on Twitter, just sign up and type in timlittlecom in the “Find People” section and you can read my daily drivel about what colour trousers Howard is wearing today.

In other news, Ant and Dec are having bespoke golf shoes made, Dara O’Briain has had some lovely bespoke loafers made and Sola is leaving us after about eight years to go and run Nigeria. He’s been a real star.

Here are some new discoveries for you all to ignore at your leisure:

Jo Wood (Ronnie’s ex) has started a business called Mrs Paisley’s Lashings, which is a pop up restaurant concept that will “pop up” at various locations starting with a huge marquee on her lawn. The food is gorgeous, its all organic and the clincher is that there is a tie up with the worldwide cocktail club who will make you the best cocktails you’ve tasted. www.mrspaisleyslashings.com.

We went on holiday recently with friends and when we returned they gave us a lovely printed hard back book with a selection of pictures of the holiday,we loved it. It’s so easy to do and there are many sites that do it. You design it online and insert your pictures and they make it up and post it to you. It’s a great way to keep your photos from specific events like a birthday etc or it’s a brilliant present for someone when you’ve been to stay with them. Two sites that I know are: www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/print-products or www.shutterfly.com

Some music now, I haven’t grooved you all up for a while so here’s a little selection, try them out on itunes or Spotify to see what you think. “Chocolate and Chilli” by Brenda Boykin is a lovely smooth soulful album that you just have to buy, “The Ultimate Tony Bennett” might sound cheesy but it’s a classic and you’ll love it, trust me. Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” is the best jazz album of all time (maybe), its not heavy, just very cool, and finally if you want something a bit more lively, I like Studio One DJ’s “the original” which is the early reggae stars from Jamaica and it’s a very lovely, lively sound.

This is a cracker. You buy a book called “From You to Me” and give it to your Dad, Mum, Auntie, whoever you choose. They then fill it out by answering the questions in it like “what was the first piece of music you bought” or “what was the first holiday you remember”. They then give it back to you and you have a fascinating record of your parent’s life. We gave them to our parents and my father in law did an amazing job, but my mum doesn’t want to spoil the pages by writing on them. www.fromyoutome.com

OK so this isn’t exactly a recession buster, but it’s still good. It’s a company who take your suitcases, golf clubs, skis, etc on holiday for you so that you don’t have to carry them. They pick them up from your door and deliver them to your hotel or house. Its not as expensive as you’d think and with the airlines charging so much for excess baggage it might even be described as cost effective. The real benefit however is that I don’t have to lug the entire contents of my wife and children’s wardrobes around the world, reducing me to a sweaty, gibbering wreck in need of heart surgery when all I wanted was relaxing break. www.carrymyluggage.com.

Thanks again for your support, please keep in touch, on Twitter, email, the phone, the website or in person, we look forward to hearing from you.

Tim

The SALE begins Saturday 27th December

Dear all,

Wow, what a six months since the last newsletter. The entire world has gone into meltdown, banks are collapsing, the pound is worth less than the Euro, businesses everywhere are crashing and to combat it all, we have reduced VAT by 2.5%, that should do it. My suggestion is that we have Obama to run the UK as well as the States, he could easily manage it.

My favourite credit crunch joke (which you have probably heard) is that a man went to the cash point to withdraw some money and it said “insufficient funds”, but he wasn’t sure if it meant him or them. Boom boom.

The sale begins on the Saturday after Christmas and we will have some mega deals to entice you to spend what little money you have after paying your electric and gas bills. Many of the shoes will be reduced by 50, 60 or even 70%, so come and fill up the wardrobe.

The collection has changed a bit recently as I have begun making a lot more shoes in Italy because I can do more casual stuff such as trainers and moccasins which seem to be in demand by our customers. In fact we have a delivery before Christmas (hopefully) of some really lovely simple trainers in several styles and colours and at a price point of around £160-£200 and all hand made in Italy. I will email some pictures later if it helps.

Do remember all of the services we offer at Tim Little. We can make special shoes to your specification, we do fully hand made bespoke (the best price you will get anywhere for hand made), we do vouchers, we do full refurbishments, we can make up specials for Women, in fact we do pretty much everything shoe wise – just ask.

One other thought is that we are trying to send as many of these newsletters as possible by email, so please send us your email address if you want to, by entering it on the website or calling Howard.

OK, here are five new ideas of things we like (thanks to the very clever Becky by the way):

1. The coolest mens magazine in the world is Fantastic Man. Its only twice a year I think but it’s a real treat. www.fantasticmanmagazine.com
2. Late at Tate is a gorgeous way to spend an evening. On the first Friday of each month, Tate Britain stays open late, allowing you to “explore art after hours”. What you do is book the lovely restaurant, have a nice meal and wander about with your glass of wine but without the crowds. www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/lateattatebritain
3. If you have an ipod or something similar, check out Walk Talk Tours. You choose a walking tour for one of their Cites, download it to your ipod and them let guide you through the streets. You can choose tours such as “The Palace Trail”, “the City and Tower” and so on, and they have five or six Cities so far. You’ll need a decent pair of shoes mind you.
4. OK, this one is “ahead of the curve”, as they say in the boardrooms of America. Its called LOOPT and you sign up, download the GPS software onto your phone and it allows you and your friends to see where each other are on a map on your phone. You could sign up your kids, for example, and know exactly where they are at any time and even get a text when they are close. The reason its ahead of the curve is that its not in the UK yet but it is about to be. When it comes here, it will be huge because there are so many advantages to it such as finding restaurants, favourite places etc etc. check the website, it’s the future…as they say. www.loopt.com.
5. Finally, a great night out. Ive always loved the idea of the old dinner dance clubs of the 30’s and 40’s. We recently went to the Pigalle Club in Piccadilly which was exactly that. You dress up a bit, and sit having dinner while an extremely cool band play fab music. When you’ve had enough champagne to lubricate the joints you get up and have a little dance with the misses (obviously don’t take anyone you’re trying to impress). Check it out and make sure you pick the type of band you like. www.vpmg.net/pigalle.

Thanks again, see you in the store and do email me with any suggestions. tim@timlittle.com

Tim

Dear All

As I write this, it's Fathers Day and, as usual, there has been no pampering, as there was on Mothers Day. In fact I keep hearing members of the family say "we don’t really do Fathers Day". The card from my kids said "behind every great dad is a fart" and inside they had written "I know its Fathers Day but try not to fart too much"! I just say "a prophet is without honour in his own country" but nobody listens.

This season the big success were our trainers for grown ups, made in Tuscany. They are the best sellers in the store and Howard keeps telling me that we haven’t got enough. We have now added a lovely dark blue version made from the same tumbled calf , they look great with jeans. Made by artisans just outside Florence, they make such lovely shoes that I have given them some loafers and driving shoes to do which are in the store now and look very elegant but also very wearable. For Autumn, there will be a lot more from Italy as I can get some softer lighter shoes made there that we cant do in England,. Take a look - they are very sharp and beautifully finessed.

Bespoke continues to grow and we recently made shoes for two well known presenters for the final of "Britain's Got Talent". I can’t say who they are but one is named after a small insect and the other after wooden flooring for the garden. Enough said.

The Sale is upon us of course (I know that's why you're reading this) and it will begin on Saturday 28th June. Howard is under instruction to have a "good old clear out", so have a look because you will find some great deals.

Ok here are the traditional "5 things" that people ask for but I never know if they actually use. If you have used any of the suggestions or have some of your own, do email me, I'd love to know.

1. Ok first up http://musicovery.com, a cool website for finding new music. You click on the type of music you like, the mood you’re in, the year and it gives you a whole selection of ideas of songs and artists that fit your description. It’s a great way to refresh that tired old ipod.
2. Next is a restaurant that is almost totally off the "hip" scale. Its called Wapping Food and is in a converted hydraulic power station, in, you guessed it, Wapping. The setting is spectacular and very urban industrial, and the food is wonderful. As it started as an art project there is amazing art all around – try it for dinner or Sunday brunch which is supposed to be great. The website (the wappingproject.com) is rubbish so call 020 7680 2080 instead.
3. Youtube is amazing and has many uses. You may assume its only useful if you want to see a dog riding a bike or a granny falling over at a wedding but no. Someone told me they had to do a wedding speech so they typed in "fantastic wedding speeches" and got endless great ones to copy, I have watched many Derby County goals from the seventies when we last won more than one game on the trot. Some people have online reunions where everyone has to post a video message of themselves. Many people send video messages rather than an email where they need to show something visually like your son winning sports day, the most addictive use however is every time someone says, "do you remember that sketch on the such and such show…" and you can find it every time. I have watched the scene from the office 150 times where Keith has his appraisal, sorry, I just have. Go to youtube and type in (The Office - Keith's appraisal) in the search box.
4. Here's a gadgety one. Mishare (mishare.com) is a gorgeous little device that connects two ipods and transfers the music between them. There are no wires, no computers, just a lovely little gadget. I can now get all of my wife's 70's disco songs onto my ipod, whoopeedoo.
5. Finally one more website, sorry. You know how you get on a plane and find your seat is by the toilet and people are pooing next to your head for seven hours, well that doesn't need to happen any more. Check out www.seatgurru.com, it has information on every airline seat and inflight amenity for individual airlines and planes. It even points out seats to avoid and why.

That's it for now, another year to wait for the next thrilling Father's Day, in the meantime, please pop by the store and keep Howard on his toes.

Thanks again.

Tim

Dear All,

Christmas is here again and at Tim Little we like to remember that old adage "a customer is for life,not just for Christmas". Its been a good year down at the Kings Road with Howard, Sonia and Sola delivering their own unique blend of customer service, wit and political insight.

Unfortunately Sonia will be leaving us in the New Year to become a high powered executive somewhere else but she will be forever remembered for the time a customer came to the shop looking for a pair of lightweight summer sandals and left in somewhat of a confused state with a pair of 12 eyelet winter walking boots – her explanation of why he "needed them" was an absolute gem.

Try our lovely new website, it is totally up to date (I think) and more and more people find it so much easier than coming into the shop, despite Howard's wit and political insight.

The sale kicks off on Thursday 27th December with the usual great deals, do call Howard for a preview if you have something in mind.

Next season we have some great new styles including a new colour of our hugely successful "washed" trainer (sorry if you didn’t get a pair, new ones are on the way from Tuscany), we also have a lovely unlined, soft suede summer shoe and some of the softest Italian handmade loafers that you have ever seen.

Enough of that, here are the now traditional five things that I’ve come across since the last newsletter. This time its entertainment based as I am always at a loss of think of somewhere new to go even though there are about twenty million restaurants and hotels in London:

1. If you are in London and fancy a really "cool" night out, try the Charlotte Street Hotel as they have one of the best bars in the West End, but the clincher is that they have a state of the art "screening room" (mini cinema to you and me) with, as they describe it,"tomato red leather seats by Poltona Frau". They do a dinner and film package – perfect. www.firmdale.com/index.php?page_id=13
2. If you need interesting stuff for your house, take a trip to the antiques market at Kempton Racecource. It is huge and happens twice a month with an incredibly wide collection of stands from sports memorabilia to jewellery and furniture. A good day out and only half an hour from London. www.allstarlanes.co.uk
3. Out of London now, a great hotel which you probably already know called Burgh Island. It’s a totally restored art deco hotel on its own island in Devon with its own pub on the island! The secret is to book the beach house which is an uber-cool house built for Agatha Christie and others to write in. She wrote Evil under the sun there. I called and asked if they had kids facilities and they said "only for well behaved children" so if your kids are anything like ours – leave them at home. www.burghisland.com
4. Finally a hotel in the sun that is my new favourite hotel. The Esplendido in Mallorca is so beautifully done, I found myself taking pictures of a detail on the skirting boards. A little man goes around every night with a paint pot touching up scuff marks in the hallways and the swimming pool and barbeque area are as close to perfect as I can currently imagine. It is in Porto Soller which is like going back to the 60's, and there is a tram to Soller which is one of the prettiest towns in Spain. The clincher is that it is only half an hour from the airport so it works for the ideal long weekend with a difference. www.esplendidohotel.com

Well that's it, lots of bargains in the sale and lots of new shoes in January / February, so please come down and see us. Thanks again for your support, we are truly grateful.

Yours

Tim

Dear all,

Another six months, another newsletter for you to throw in the bin. By the way, the wonderful Lucia Van der Post, one of England's finest journalists wrote a whole column in the Times recently about this newsletter. Sales of the Times went up 20% that day within a mile radius of my Mums house – uncanny.

First things first, Derby are back in the premiership which I’m sure you’re all as thrilled about as I am. I took my son to the play off at Wembley for the single most gut wrenchingly tense, exciting game of football I have ever been to in my 38 years of watching Derby only for him to say "can we go home now, I’m a bit bored" 10 minutes from the end. If you think that’s boring…

The sale begins on Saturday 30th June and as usual there are some fabulous deals so do come and stock up. For the new season I have been working with a little factory in Tuscany where they make beautiful hand made shoes and we have developed a gorgeous driving mocc with rubber pimpled sole taking me back to my time at Tods, a leather soled loafer in soft brown calf and two amazing leather trainers. The trainers are made from buttery soft calf and then washed to give them a real lived in, beaten up look. They are the answer to how you can wear a trainer without looking like a hoodie. My Daughter even approves and she thinks I’m a "sad loser".

The traditional "5 things" section seems to be the only reason people read this now so here we go with 5 more things I’ve discovered that make my life a little less dull:

First up, camping. Now I like the luxury of flat screen TVs and a mountain of pillows on my bed as much as the next man when I’m away from home, but Feather Down Farms is the most wonderful collection of farms around the country with old school camping facilities. They provide the tents, beds and everything, you just turn up. Check out the site and click on accommodation and on seeing the picture if you haven’t booked within 5 minutes I’ll be shocked. Its great with the kids or without. Another camping idea is Vintage Vacations where you stay in the Isle of Wight in a 1950's chrome Airstream caravan, check it out: www.vintagevacations.co.uk, very hip.

Next shoe making. It seems odd for me to suggest making your own shoes but there is a company called www.prescottandmackay.co.uk who do simple fun shoemaking, hat making and bag making courses. They do gift vouchers so it’s a really nice present idea (probably more for Women) and at the end of even the short one, you get to keep the pair of shoes that you’ve made.

To keep yourself up to date, I have two suggestions. The Future Laboratory is an organisation that "brings the future to you". They have a great newsletter which is a fascinating read as well as a serious business tool if required. www.thefuturelaboratory.com. On the consumer side there is a newish lifelstyle mag called Monocle which I love. It’s by Tyler Brule who founded Wallpaper and its just such a clever magazine, try it out but read it and re-read it, it gets better the more you pick it up.

Ollie Pym is a young artist who does pictures of iconic people who interest him. I commissioned a picture of the Jackson Five from him for the wife on her birthday (doh! I promised not to mention her this time). Check out his site and you will see his style, you will either love it or hate it but I think he’s one for the future and he does commissions if you have a special subject. www.olliepymart.com

Finally The Twilight Players. Impossible to describe they are three incredibly cool dancers who totally make a party. They turn up and do this amazing dance which is a mix of hip hip, soul, funk and break dance all to a music track they bring with them. They appeared in the Murder on the Dance floor video and if you have a party to arrange, book them as people will be talking about them for months after. www.twilightplayers.com.

That’s all folks, once again thanks for sticking with us, we are eternally grateful.

Tim