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And these valuable servants? Not equerries or other royal minions, but her trusty patent leather shoes, the unsung heroes of the Royal household. It takes a team of four — not including the junior member of Buckingham Palace staff, dubbed ‘Cinders’, who has the job of wearing in her Majesty’s shoes — to produce the classic black numbers (she has other colours in the same style) which cost about £1,000. Yet the Queen certainly gets value for money out of them, wearing the same pair for years and re-heeling them when they wear out. When she stepped out in Northern Ireland with Prince Philip this week, she was wearing shoes identical to those she first sported five decades ago. Politics change, and so, gradually, does the monarch’s style of dress. The coats have become narrower, the hemlines slightly longer. Only her Majesty’s shoes remain emphatically the same. At 88, the Queen relies on her shoes to be less glass slipper, more steadfast slip-on. Comfort and support are key. As a young woman she often wore shoes with a thinner, higher heel, but for nearly 50 years the same low style has kept her sure-footed and age-defyingly nimble. Known as her ‘work’ shoes, they are handmade for her by shoemaker Anello & Davide of Kensington, West London, from the finest calf leather, usually in black patent with a brass clasp or a small bow. The team works from a wooden ‘last’ made from measurements of the Queen’s foot, and include a pattern cutter; a clicker, who selects the leather; a closer, who sews the upper part and adds stiffeners; and, finally, a maker, who adds the sole and heel on the last. | 
