Bruno Frisoni is breathing new life into the legendary Parisian house that shoe designer Roger Vivier built. Credited with inventing the stiletto in 1954, Vivier was exalted as the “Fabergé of Footwear.” To his list of accomplishments he added collaborating with Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Emanuel Ungaro, creating the silver-buckled Pilgrim shoe that Catherine Deneuve made famous in the 1967 classic Belle de Jour as well as embroidering Elizabeth II’s coronation shoes with garnets.
So needless to say, Frisoni has been given an almost impossible pair of shoes to fill. And yet, he has. Frisoni admits that the foremost goal for his debut Vivier collection was to avoid the “archival trap” while remaining loyal to the Vivier aesthetic.
So when the label’s much awaited flagship opened in Paris in March 2004, Frisoni debuted a Pilgrim shoe, but one with a narrower buckle, a shortened top to show more of the toes, and a new name: La Belle Vivier. This classic style remains the label’s bestseller and has come to be known as a status symbol on Fifth Avenue. Prices in the collection are as luxurious as the materials as they are made from and range from $445 for the Belle Vivier to $17,650 for a flat, square-toed crocodile boot. As part of the brand’s opulent allure, the new collection will not be as widely available as Vivier’s shoes once were – customers can only purchase shoes by private appointments at the new Roger Vivier showroom in Paris.
