“You can’t be elegant if you’re not comfortable and well-dressed” claimed Alessandro Berluti, who was born in 1865 in a small village in Marche in Italy, trained as a cabinetmaker and at 19 left for Paris to pursue his dream. A decade later he founded the house, making bespoke shoes for clients such as dancer and choreographer Isadora Duncan and businesswoman Elizabeth Arden. Mid-war Paris was a glamorous, non-stop celebration, and Torello Berluti enthusiastically embraced the art of bespoke shoemaking he learned from his father, Alessandro. With a deep love for footwear and an artist’s sensibility, his designs were quickly admired as the quintessence of elegance and in 1928 the first boutique opened in the 8th arrondissement, near the Champs-Elysees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The art is passed down from father to son and Torello’s son Talbinio, who was born just after the end of World War II, studied architecture while working alongside his father. His vision was to make the house famous and driven by a thirst for change in 1959 he presented the first collection of ready-to-wear shoes, which carried all the characteristics of traditional shoe manufacturing, opening the doors of the house to a wider, newer , more modern clientele. “The spirit of the house is where the respect of the craftsman meets the challenge of the artist” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the late 1960s Olga Berluti, Talbinio’s cousin, took over the reins, bringing her energy and talent to the house, along with a bold approach and innovative ideas. At the time the store on rue Marbeuf was something between a showroom and a living room, where customers such as Francois Truffaut, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Berge, Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld relaxed and chatted in its comfortable armchairs. In the 80s, Olga perfected the patina technique and shortly after, developed the house’s exclusive Venezia leather, revolutionizing the traditional men’s shoe by incorporating new shades – at that time most shoes were black or brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The art of bespoke footwear<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today Berluti designs footwear, bags, ready-to-wear garments and accessories, combining unparalleled craftsmanship with classic, clean lines. But the foundation of the house is the bespoke shoe. The legacy of furniture maker Alessandro Berluti, who had a talent for wood carving and the balance of volumes, has been passed down from generation to generation and today is evident in the perfection of construction and attention to detail \u2013 a seam or a curve reveals the codes and values of the house . As for the famous Venezia leather and the Verluti patina developed in the 1980s, they give the house the opportunity to create shoes that tell the story of their owner and reflect their soul. The Venezia leather interacts beautifully with the colors, which acquire exceptional transparency and depth. And the shoes exude life and character, as each patina is unique.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Construction stages<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A century of history, craftsmanship and creativity is summed up in a pair of bespoke Berluti shoes, the creation of which required around 250 tasks, 50 hours, three appointments with a master shoemaker and the dedication of many skilled artisans. Every creation of the house has the customer at the center. His appearance, his gait, his needs, the right to absolute comfort, the way he defines elegance \u2013 these are the factors that will determine the design of the shoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It all starts with a meeting in the private space of a boutique in Paris or any other city in the world, between two people who love craftsmanship: the customer and the house’s master shoemaker. The second, after listening to the wishes and getting to know the customer’s habits, will suggest the ideal shape and discuss the spaciousness of the application, the thickness of the sole, the color of the lining, the material \u2013 while the brand Venezia leather of the house is the most frequent customer choice, a wide variety of skins is also available for custom creations- and patina. At the meeting every option is explored to create an incomparably unique pair of shoes. Then follows a series of steps to make the bespoke footwear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first stage is the measurement. From six to ten measurements are necessary to assess the morphology, size and sensitivity of the client’s foot. Measurements are taken by the master shoemaker, using a measurement sheet on which all the necessary information is noted. Next comes the construction of the calapodi, which is gradually carved into a piece of hard wood using a tool called a paroir and then sharpened with a file and sanded. The absolute precision at this stage ensures that the shoe to be manufactured will fully respect the morphology of the foot, while maintaining its elegant line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A second appointment follows with the customer, who will try on a model of his shoes made in temporary leather. At this stage the fit and style of the model is assessed and the master shoemaker notes any corrections required to create the perfect pair of shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The designer then takes over the creation of the pattern. He covers the cockroach with a self-adhesive canvas, on which he draws the model, then stretches this canvas and reproduces it on a special cardboard. According to this design, the pieces of leather will be cut with a special leathercraft knife by the expert craftsman and form the upper part of the shoe. The leather will be cleaned, cut, assembled with the lining and sewn. In Berluti’s workshops, at every stage of the shoe’s construction, the artisans can satisfy any personalization requirements or customer wishes, as long as they are consistent with the house’s identity. So the designer can create a personalized design or add the customer’s initials and a loafer or Oxford can be enhanced with an embroidery.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the upper part of the shoe is complete, the sole is made and sewn. This step takes the most time as it takes around 30 hours to complete and requires physical strength on the shoemaker’s part as the strength of the construction determines the strength of the shoe. The final touch to any shoe sur mesure is the patina, and the house’s sophisticated technique transforms colors into unique hues with depth and clarity. The color palette is endless, from smoky grey-black to the shade of caviar and from deep burgundy to the color of autumn leaves. As each shoe is completely unique in color, exclusivity is guaranteed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After months of work, the bespoke shoes are ready. The master cobblers report that their delivery is always an emotional ceremony, as each pair is presented to the customer in a box lined with Venezia Scritto leather in the color of the patina of the shoes, along with bespoke cleats to preserve them. The manufacturing process of the handmade custom shoes is complete. As Olga Berlutti always said, “it is as complicated as building a cathedral”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prices for a bespoke pair of shoes depend on the materials used and start at 5000 euros. As for the “conventional” Berlutis that come to the market, they usually start at 1000 euros and can reach up to 12,000 euros.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the world of footwear and accessories, there are few houses that can be proud of their history and their “savoir-faire”. Among them Berluti,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2993,2998],"tags":[3214,3904,3903,3052],"class_list":["post-12377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-style","tag-life","tag-shoemakers","tag-shoes","tag-style"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12382,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377\/revisions\/12382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-161-1024x682.png\")
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