He was just a boy of eight or nine when he first used a sewing machine, but Bijan Yarkhani, the owner of Village Cobbler, took to it immediately. He was at an age when most kids choose to run around outside, but Bijan was raised in a family of artists and artisans. Despite this support and inspiration at home, learning how to repair shoes and actually understanding the intricacies of it was something that would take Bijan a while to master. “I was fixing shoes back home [in Tehran, Iran],” he says, “but I learned to appreciate the field from my mom and my dad because my mom was a great tailor and my dad was also a custom furniture maker.”
His parents understood the value of teaching their son how to use his artistic side both creatively and pragmatically, coaching him on the finer aspects of craftsmanship. “I was using my hands,” says Bijan. “I was using a lot of arts and crafts because dad and mom always made that stuff available.” When his mother thought he was old enough, she showed Bijan the ins and outs of the sewing machine and left him to his own devices.
