Inspired by nature, Alessandro Michele came out with a collection that oozes controlled eccentricity. Michele deploys his vision of Gucci heritage within an imagination and a poetry that takes on the aesthetics of the 70s with wise and unpretentious emotion. The Gucci woman this time around looks like a girl that’s conscious more of her...
Luxury and artisanship may today go hand-in-hand with tradition and authenticity, but poetry can also be found in the history of the Rossi brand. At the ripe age of 14 years, the young Sergio played hooky to take on the family art: fabricating quality shoes. In 1950, the new designer took the reigns of his...
It was in 1970 that Manolo Blahnik crossed paths with Diana Vreeland. Interested in his talent, the “Big Chief Forever” advised him to concentrate exclusively on shoes. That’s what he would do starting in 1972. In that year, British designer Ossie Clar entrusted Manolo Blahnik with the creation of the shoes for his runway shoe;...
The “180” moccasin what with its shape that hasn’t changed since its original creation in 1946, still produced in accordance with fabrication processes dating back to 1946 in the original ateliers in Limoges, France, is now and probably will remain for a long time to come one of, or even, the emblematic style for the...
“The shiny red colour of the soles has no function other than to identify to the public that they are mine. I selected the colour because it is engaging, flirtatious, memorable, and the color of passion.” Christian Louboutin
Inspired by the socks inserted into the shoes of Japanese factory workers, this practical piece from Asia was reinvented in 1989 by Martin Margiela. Wishing to unite the past with the present, he re-transcribed it starting with an object that had a hundred years of history, making for a surprisingly futuristic creation. With this game...
The story of plastic beach sandals is a French one, beginning in 1946 in Auvergne. One man, Jean Dauphant, began fabricating knives with handles made of plastic instead of horn. This modification was an economical solution, adapted to the difficult times of the immediate postwar period, as well as a small revolution in itself. For...
Paris. 1947. The story of Repetto was just beginning. Rose Repetto, mother of choreographer and dancer Roland Petit, conceived her first pointe and demi-pointe shoes with her son’s direction. Thanks to a reversed sewing technique, she made them with an unequalled comfort, ideal for executing pas-de-bourrées, arabesques, and other entrechats. These slippers wouldn’t take long...
“Shoes must have very high heels to put a woman’s beauty on a pedestal.” Vivienne Westwood is unequalled for developing shoes with ingenious style and with a more than audacious instep. These shoes-cum-works of art have established themselves as collector’s pieces since the 80s. But the legend of Vivienne Westwood began 10 years earlier. In...
1996: during his time at Central Saint Martins, Alexander McQueen met the one and only Sarah Burton. From that moment on, the two-headed genius team ceaselessly enlarged the possibilities of what fashion could be… Runways were for them the occasion to tell a story, to stage a play. Sometimes poetic, sometimes jarring, the McQueen runways...
