Jaipuri Jutti

The juti or jutti is a style of handcrafted traditional footwear common in North India, Pakistan, and neighbouring regions. They are traditionally made up of leather and with extensive embroidery, in real gold and silver thread as inspired by royalty in the subcontinent over 400 years ago. Prior to that, Rajputs of the northwest used to wear leather juttis, also called ethnic shoes. Now with changing times, different juttis with rubber soles are made available. 

The History:

Jutti originated under the Mughal Empire, where they were decorated with colours, gems, and other ornaments. They are said to have been popularized under the Mughal King Saleem Shah and are often referred to as “Saleem Shahis” as a result. Although leather shoes have been worn for over 5,000 years by various civilizations, they should not be confused with jutti, because jutti are unique in their ornamental style, shape, and appearance.

Later, these ethnic shoes were worn by wealthy zamindaars, nawaabs, Maharajas and Maharanis of India with the design & styles inspired from the Mughal era. All these traditional shoes were handmade by skilled artisans in remote corners of India. After the rule of Kings was gone, jutti remained popular in North India, especially Rajasthan & Punjab and most of the skilled artisans settled in these parts, from where they passed on the art to the next generation, with each generation contributing some variation to it. Even with changing times, juttis have remained part of ceremonial attire, especially at weddings. The unembellished juttis are used in everyday routine by both men and women in most of Rajasthan & Punjab along with traditional dresses like Sherwani or Kurta Paijama or Salwaar Kameez where they form the quintessential accessory.

As jutti have evolved through the centuries and are being produced by individual artisans, products vary in designs and colours. They encapsulate cultural diversity, local ethos and ethnicity within each pair of footwear. By large, they have no left or right distinction, and over time take the shape of the foot. They usually have flat sole, and are similar in design for both women and men. In some jutti for men, they have a sharp extended tip “nokh” curved upwards like traditional mustaches (also called Khussa), while in some juttis for women, there is no back part near the ankle.

Beauty, vibrant colour and utility are combined in these juttis of India. Rich golden threads and colourful beads are used to craft exquisite motifs in order to impart a royal touch on these juttis made of different shades of leather. Juttis are slip-on in style and are characterized by rising high to the Achilles' tendon in the back and covering the toes with a round or M-shaped heavily-embroidered upper shoe and leaving the top of the foot nearly bare. Apart from Jaipur & Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Amritsar & Patiala in Punjab are important trade centres for handcrafted traditional juttis, from where they are exported all over the world.

Tools and Raw Materials:

The following are the tools and raw materials required for the jutti making of Jaipur:

• Scissors - It is used to cut the required materials.
• Pliers - It is used to align the material along the sole part of the chappals.
• Adhesive - It is used to stick two surfaces together.
• Hand Press Machine - It is specially used to make the specific sizes of the rubber soles as per the need.
• Mould of the Foot Size - Generally wood moulds are preferred for jutti making.
• Needle - Long size needles are preferred for stitching the sole and the strap part of the jutti.
• Cotton Thread - It is used to stitch the goat/ buffalo leather jutti.
• Sponge - It is used to apply the adhesive evenly on the surface of leather/rubber.
• Rubber for Sole - Nowadays rubber is generally preferred as the sole material of jutti.
• Steel Scale - It is used to measure the length and width of the designs on the jutti.
• Leather - Generally the traditional leathers are made from the skin of goat, buffalo and in some cases with camel leather.
• Resin leather - It is preferred nowadays as it is cost reducing.
• Rapi (cutter) - It is used to remove the extras from the leather.
• Gulsam - It is a tool used to obtain the circular/ round shape.
• Katarni - It is a tool used to hole the sole and strap that makes it easy for stitching them together.
• Muasle - It is used to impact on the strap and sole together.

Making Process:

The jutti making it consists of following parts that is:

• Sole part
• Strap part
• Combining of the sole and the strap part

Strap Making:

• Strap parts generally consist of the embroidery and the leather portions.
• Embroidery for Jutti’s is either hand or machine embroidered as per the patterns.
• Embroidery cut pieces are pasted on the leather or the resin leather.
• Remaining leather pieces re cut out leaving only the strap size.

Sole Making:

• As per the size of the foot sole the leather is cut and pasted pair wise on the resin leather with smooth finish.
• Rubber material of the sole size is cut on the Hand press machine with the stencil presto the required sizes.
• Rubber and leather parts are applied with adhesive, semi dried and fixed together by impacting with muasle tool in one of the processes.
• In another method, they are cut of the same size and kept ready for the next process.

Combining of the Sole and the Strap Part:

• After the strap and the part are completely dried, the strap is inserted to the horizontal or vertical small holes with the help of the wooden mould kept as reference of the sizes.
• As the sole and the strap are firmly fixed, the rubber sole is pasted to the bottom and impact with muasle tool (locally called).
• In another method, the sole and strap are stitched together with the long needle and cotton thread and as per the sole colour the polish is applied.
• Plain or coloured piping’s are pasted or stitched on to the edges to beautify the jutti outlook.
• Every stage is hammered so that the layers of the sole are held together.
• Craftsmen make more jutti’s of the women and men sizes.