EXCLUSIVE: Harry Lawtey Channels Lord Snowdon, David Niven in Church’s Campaign
LONDON — British actor Harry Lawtey is the picture of an English gentleman in Church’s 50th anniversary campaign for the Shannon derby.
The campaign was shot in the 18th century country house West Wycombe House in Buckinghamshire, which is famed as the setting for Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” and Marek Kanievska’s 1984 film “Another Country” starring Rupert Everett and Colin Firth.
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Lawtey’s character in the images shot by Phil Poynter lean toward the latter with his crisp three-piece suits and cane or English explorer attire.
The Prada-owned brand named photographer and filmmaker Lord Snowdon and actor and writer David Niven as inspirations for the campaign.
“I’ve always been really enthusiastic about footwear funnily enough, especially proper shoes. When I was around 15 or 16, I started taking much more of an interest in fashion, there was a real trend for classic dressing at the time — trenchcoats and suit trousers — which was probably quite influenced by ‘Peaky Blinders.’ Quite pretentiously, I chucked out almost all of my trainers and only wore leather shoes for a good few years: Chelsea boots, brogues and loafers,” said Lawtey in an interview.
“Even now I still wear almost exclusively smart leather shoes, certainly much more than I wear sneakers. I just like the strength it gives you from the ground up. It changes your gait and the way you carry yourself — it can make a big difference. Actors are always really interested in what shoes their character will wear and I think that makes a lot of sense,” he added.
The Shannon derby that Lawtey wears in the campaign is a special re-edition of the brand’s famous shoes using Church’s 224 last from 1974 and is available in black or darmarock binder leather with commemorative packaging.
It’s been more than 10 years since the brand switched to using the 103 last for the Shannon derby, which is also available in sandalwood, burgundy, navy, and wood green styles, as well as a made-to-order style in burgundy crup leather.
In the lead-up to the campaign, Lawtey has been immersed in the making of Church’s shoes.
“They are the epitome of hand-crafted, authentic manufacturing; each shoe takes three months to build, and is made with love, detail and care. To do business with those ideals in the modern world of fast fashion is remarkable and has to be celebrated,” he said, detailing that he met the man who coaches all the brand’s factory employees on how to make shoes.
The 27-year-old actor stars in Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” as the character of Harvey Dent opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga.
Lawtey is also one of the main fixtures on HBO’s banking drama “Industry,” where he plays Robert Spearing, a handsomely naive graduate that’s always putting his wrong foot forward on the stern trading floor while seeking validation from all the wrong places.
“Naturally there’s an acorn of you in every character you play. He was a bit of a hellraiser and a lot of my friends found that very funny when I told them what I was going to be doing,” the actor told WWD in 2022 ahead of the series’ second season.
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