“A Day in the Life – Part II” returns Church’s brand ambassador Theo James to an English country manor for the spring-summer 2026 campaign, a second chapter in a narrative that began with fall-winter 2025. Photographer Phil Poynter captures James through a sequence of estate vignettes, each one assigned a specific pair of shoes.
Theo James for Church’s Spring/Summer 2026
James writes his Almanac of English Eccentricities on a typewriter in Rother loafers, walks pot-bellied pigs in Shanghai Laser monk straps, birdwatches in linen Rother loafers with leather detailing, restores a vintage motorcycle in Reigate suede ankle boots, and plays lawn bowls in Hampstead Oxfords from the Crown collection. The format is English eccentric done with a straight face, the absurdity of each scene made plausible by the specificity of the shoe.
The campaign spotlights two focal points in the spring-summer 2026 lineup. The Shanghai Essence family reinterprets Church’s iconic 1929 Shanghai silhouette, appearing here as monk straps with a sculpted strap and a shaped last suited to estate gravel and interior parquet alike.
The Crown collection, represented by the Hampstead Oxford, draws on centuries of Church’s leatherworking through uppers cut from fine-grain hide and finished to a depth visible even in Poynter’s black and white photography. The Hampstead Oxford, photographed mid-game on a ballroom floor, is the shoe Church’s has been making since 1873 for an occasion this specific.
