Roger Vivier is the most iconic shoe brand in the world. The house was born in Paris in the 1930s, when Mr. Vivier, an artist dedicated to creating shoes like those who make dreams come true, met actress Joséphine Baker at the famous Folies Bergère cabaret and began to make them for her. From then on, many will be the international stars whose feet Mr. Vivier will wear. For Marlene Dietrich, he creates the famous “Boule heel”, a round shaped heel covered in rhinestones. For the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, he designs gold, jewel-encrusted heels. In the 1950s, he invented the successful stiletto and, in the 1960s, the “Virgule” heel, which means comma, and imitates the shape of the punctuation mark, coining an unprecedented style in the world of footwear.
In 1998, at the age of 91, Roger Vivier dies. Twenty years later, his legacy will fall at the hands of the visionary Gherardo Felloni, an Italian designer who is today the creative director of the house. Since he arrived, Felloni has been able to take the tradition of the brand towards a young, innovative, eccentric and fun horizon.
The interview is in his office on Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Gherardo Felloni, in front of a modern, spacious and tidy desk, with a bookcase somewhere between bubblegum pink and Dior pink. Thus, he is about to talk about how he revolutionizes Roger Vivier's designs without the brand failing to communicate the story behind each collection and each shoe.
-What is a perfect shoe for you?
-For me, a perfect shoe is, first, a shoe that women want, that they want to have. This is very important. Because when I make a shoe that, for example, I like, but women don't, there is something wrong. Loses the sense. But it happens. Sometimes, you do something and you think it's cute, and it's not. The most important work I do is think about each step a woman takes in the world – different types of women, because I like to dress different women, and even the same woman can wear different things throughout the day – but I think really on how these women are going to wear these shoes, and so I make more powerful shoes.
-What is it like to work with Inès De La Fressange as a brand ambassador?
-The wonderful thing about Inès is that she knows women better than I do, and she knows French women, because she lived here all her life. If I need advice from her or anything from her, I can always count on her, have a coffee with her, go to her office and talk. This is how we work. In general, the ambassador is someone who knows the world around us from a different point of view, which helps a lot. And of course she supports us. When I got here, she was the one who opened the door for me, because she knows everyone, she knows the dynamics. And you know how she is: a creative director can change – I don't want her to change, but she can change – but she stays, she is the heart of the house.
-What inspires you? Art, interior design, dreams and fantasies, I read that, but is there something else?
-The music. I'm really very quirky, because I find inspiration basically everywhere. I have a strong vision of things, and I am not afraid of everything that is outside or further away. I can include it in my vision; I know how to do it and how to make it work. So, I can be inspired by super chic things and also super trashy things. Everything. If I had to say something, I would say cats! (Serie). Cats inspire me for how they look – I think they look very cute – but also for how they live and approach you. A cat is like a customer. You cannot force the cat to do what you want: you are obliged to do things that it likes. And the same when I have to face a collection. I am not a designer who imposes things. I do things. I try to approach the demands and needs of women. It's a cat relationship (laughs).
-How do you combine your Italian DNA with the French of the house?
-First, I think that Italy and France are quite similar. And they have totally different points of view and approaches on many things, but the Italian point of view on French fashion is not new. In shoes, for example. Since the 1950s, when Roger Vivier took out his collection, he made it in Italy.
-And all the big brands today also make their shoes in Italy...
-Exact. There is a historical relationship between France and Italy, and I feel very comfortable. I think the French attitude is more linked to promotion. The French always promote what they do, even when they don't like it. The Italians don't; if they don't like something, they don't promote it. If I make shoes that I don't like, I can't promote them. A French designer can. It is an important difference. Mainly because they are very good at it, so I try to take this from French culture: put your best effort into what you do so that you can then promote it.
-In terms of style, do you try to bring something of the Italian style?
-The French in general (because it is a generalization) are more conservative. They are not daring. They don't dare much. They are more minimalist. Italians are more playful, more cheerful and more eclectic. Here it is more bourgeois.
-How often do you visit the Roger Vivier archives and what was your first experience?
-My way of dealing with files is very peculiar. My thing was never to grab a used vintage piece to copy it. Never. Not even in my previous work experiences with Helmut Lang, at Miu Miu, at Dior. I hate that for two reasons: first, because it's so easy to do something old, because it's already done, and also because the anatomy of women's feet is always changing, and you can't do the same shape today as before. It's impossible, no matter how beautiful the shape of shoes in the 50s, for example, you can't copy them today. So, my relationship with the archives when I got here – because that was one of my dreams, when I signed the contract, one of the main reasons I had was to have access to the archives – was to take fifteen days to open and look at everything.
-Where are the files?
-That you see there (points to some numbered and neatly arranged boxes on the shelves of a pink Dior cabinet in a corner of the office), for example, is a part of the archive. It's also in some museums, in factories... It's too big an archive to keep in one place. And what I did was take the time to go through it all. I put the shoes that I liked the most on the table and said: “What do I have to get out of here? The feeling, nothing more. I looked one by one –because each shoe was different– thinking about what was special about it: the color, the shape. I felt how the silhouette of each shoe was different from the others, and I stayed with that.
-And while you were drawing?
-Do not. Then I saved the whole file, and never saw it again.
-And this was all? Did you only see it once?
-Yes. Because you have to work on your mind. You have to be able to remember things, not copy them.
-Tell me about your childhood in the shoe factory.
-All my family is in Arezzo, they never moved. I grew up there. My father worked all day, my mother worked too, and sometimes they had no one to leave me with, so my father took me with him to the factory. And he left me there. Because I was a very independent child, he was always running away from me, I didn't care about anything...
-Where was the factory?
-Near Arezzo. My uncle, my father's older brother, opened the factory in 1958. There are six brothers, so there is a significant age difference between the two. And then the factory became part of the Prada Group in the 2000s. They closed the factory, and built a bigger one in its place: the old one doesn't exist anymore. They were used to doing Hermès and Gucci in the '70s.
-And your dad and your uncle are still working?
-No, my uncle is very old now, he is still alive, thank God, and my father stopped working two years ago, because he is 78 years old, but he is always there to advise me.
-Did you visit the factory as a child?
-Yes, he went to the factory, saw a piece of leather, a piece of paper, and drew. It was a game. He picked up things. He had the opportunity to watch. This was in the 1980s, and until the 1990s I had the opportunity to see the Hermès and Gucci collections from the beginning, and later those of Prada, because the first shows were held there. I knew all the tacos, everything, and that gave me a lot of confidence when I started.
-But you studied biology, why?
-At that time I didn't care about shoes. My father is a good man, and he didn't force me or my brother to do what he did. At that time, I liked animals, nature, so I studied biology in Arezzo. He was a high school major in biology. When I finished, I said “I want to be an architect”. And my father told me “you are not a very good student, are you sure?”. I think he is the first father to not encourage his children to study (laughs). But in a very sweet way, not in a bad way. And then he told me “they are looking for someone to do an internship at Prada, because they need someone who knows how to draw”. And I was very good, because I painted at home. "If you need a little money...", he told me. I thought: “Oh, and they give you money, well, give it a go, I'll do it”. I didn't care about the job at all, zero, but when I did my first internship I loved it, and I renewed it, and then they gave me the first contract and I stayed for ten years.
- And after those ten years in Prada?
-I went to Dior for five and a half years, let's say, then [Patrizio] Bertelli called me again, but I told him “I want to stay in Paris, I don't want to go back to Milan because I moved here”. But when I was at Prada, I started with Helmut Lang. Fendi for two years, and then Miu Miu.
-How is your creative process when you design?
-In general, I draw. I am very fast at drawing, because for me it is very complicated to explain to someone what I want, so I draw it.
-And do you have a theme? When the press release arrives, does your design tell a story?
-Yes, basically when I start making the collection I already have a story in my head, because I think that today everyone makes nice shoes and nice handbags, so you need to have a story behind it. But generally, I make a design, and once it's finished I start building the story. For me, it's not something you think about before, but after.
-What is the most important lesson you learned from your father and your uncle in the shoe business in the 1950s?
-There are many technical lessons, but the most important thing I learned from my father is that you have to know how to work with the people you have, and this also means understanding what they do best. Because in general people don't know what the best talent they have is. And to work knowing who you have in front of you, not only demanding things from them, but knowing what they have to give. I learned that from my father, that people don't always know what they can give. It happens to me even with artists, who sometimes have managers who do that for them.
-Do you spend a lot of time with people in the factory?
-Yes, the factory is in Marche. The countryside is very beautiful and not so well known.
-And what did you learn from your uncle?
My uncle... (laughs)
Didn't you have a good relationship?
-Yes, yes, very good. But it was particular, because he was the boss seriously, the founder of the factory. My uncle was the real cobbler. This means that if a designer came and told him I want this like this, but here a little more like this, he would tell him “perfect”, and a week later he would give him what he thought was best. It is very difficult to make money making shoes, because they are very expensive, there is a lot of technology, making a heel is very expensive, that is why shoemakers are always poor (laughs).
-And any lesson that you have left from him?
-This is a lesson. Be smart when changing designs and think about what you really need. Because there is a lot of work behind it, and every time you change something, you have to be very focused on making people understand.
-Is fashion and shoes what you talk about a lot on Sundays at the table?
-It depends. I try not to see fashion people or friends who work in fashion because if we don't just talk about fashion (he says jokingly).
-So most of your friends are not from the world of fashion?
-No, I have many friends from the world of fashion, but I try not to see them (laughs). But my boyfriend is the director who wrote and directed the movies I did for Roger Vivier, and it's a nightmare because we only talk about this (laughs). He is Italian, from Naples. Andrea Danish. He is younger than me and has a brilliant mind. He is a director, and now he is making his first film, which is going to be released next spring. We met in Naples and he moved to Paris. Later, with the pandemic, we went to a house that I have on an island, in Giglio, so now he is still there because he is writing his film.
What advice would you give to a younger you?
-Don't start working in the fashion industry. Study opera and be a tenor. (laughs)
-What was the biggest challenge when you started at Roger Vivier?
-Don't screw up this brand. I said to myself: I want my experience with this brand to be good, I can achieve it or not. Because at first you don't know how it's going to go. Now I know that I do a good job, that we have good sales, that everyone likes it, but at first you don't know. And it was my first time as creative director. I was just a shoe designer, and that's what I told myself: stop thinking too much and try not to ruin the brand.
-To protect the heritage...
-Yes, protect the heritage, but also live something beautiful, consistent here (he touches his heart), and not destroy the brand. Because now –and it is not the will of the designer– but many brands are, for me, losing something. This "sell, sell, sell" is going to end. It's going to be a problem. So don't ruin the brand, don't forget the heritage, and don't forget the savoir-faire of this business, because I realize that everything is really very well done. Vivier is like the Hermès of shoes, so don't change that.
-How did the Hôtel Vivier come about? The idea of a Hôtel particulier that in each room offers a performance of artists presenting your collection.
-When I got here, I had in my hands a shoe brand that made handbags and accessories, and today we have to be consistent in communication, because if you don't disappear. And I thought: “What can I do with Vivier?” Because we don't have parades… something had to be found.
-For people to want to come
-Exact. So I thought: what is the worst thing about Fashion Week for journalists, for the people who come? Go to a parade for five minutes, watch I don't know what, write an article, go to another parade and so on. I had to do something that people would enjoy, that would make them want to come. I thought: I have shoes, but I don't have a body, and so I can't. I have worked at Prada, Gucci, with Helmut Lang, with Galliano, and my school is that a shoe can be an object, of course, but it needs a silhouette and I didn't want models. So I said to myself: I like music, cinema, opera, theater, let's do a performance casting! And let each room imagine a different woman who can wear this shoe. And it worked. What Hôtel Vivier has is that there is no need to force people to post on their networks, because it is organic…
-How were the first experiences?
-At first, here at Vivier, everyone looked at me like I was crazy. What you want to do is crazy, let's do it this first season and then we'll see… But I was sure that people would love it. Because when you do something following your passion, people understand. And at the end of the first Hôtel Vivier, at seven, we had to close and no one wanted to leave. At first, as it was thought that no one was going to come, the morning was quite calm, but then people began to publish it on their networks and suddenly there was a queue outside. And so was each Hôtel Vivier; in the last one there were almost a thousand people. They gave me so many compliments, I was very happy.
-This year, to present the collection, you put on an underwater monster mask, why?
-Two reasons. The first, because every time I appear in the video they have to do it again. That the light is not good, that I look very tired (laughs)... I try to be in these videos that we make at Roger Vivier, but I work the two days before to prepare everything. And every time I'm on camera, I look horrible! So this time I said “let's wear a mask, perfect”. The second reason is because I composed a song. Because I sing it, I don't want people to think I'm pretentious. So I thought: I don't want to be in the video since I'm singing, there on stage. When Andrea [Danese] wrote it, there were so many animals that I thought, what if I was an animal too?
How has the pandemic affected you?
-I really believe that something must be learned from the pandemic. Let's not forget. Because I see that in this Fashion Week many are trying to forget. And that's wrong because we have to remember all the bad things that humanity has had in its history, and do something better afterwards. Now I understand that we can work from wherever we are. We knew it, but now it's a fact. I think we don't have to forget about digital, because this pandemic has been proof that digital matters, because people can't take a plane anywhere every five minutes. I realized that I don't want to live as stressed as before, although the Hôtel Vivier for me had already been an epiphany of the kind, because I saw many people too stressed and said no. This is not how it goes. For me, fashion is something organic.
