The Legendary Silhouette

With his sculptural accessories, Roger Vivier was more than a shoemaker: he was an architect of the silhouette. This figure of Parisian elegance always knew how to combine an impactful line with the virtuosity of craftsmanship. This season, the creative director Gherardo Felloni celebrates that maestro of structure, and rekindles Vivier’s close, long-standing connection with couture.

“Monsieur Vivier changed the allure of women. His creations were neither unassuming nor decorative: they were designed purely for attitude.”

Over the course of a day, a Parisian townhouse welcomes a carrousel featuring the couture presentations of the 1950s. In a tribute to the ceremoniousness and fitting models of the time, models fully clad in black drift below the opulent rocaille woodwork, exclusively adorned with breathtaking shoes, bags, jewelry and gloves... “I wanted the strength and sensuousness of the allure to exclusively emanate from the accessories,” asserts Gherardo Felloni. This season, as a tribute to the legendary silhouette designed by Roger Vivier, the clothing and indeed the body stand down to bring these flamboyant accessories to center stage. “These sculpturesque designs go beyond their purely ornamental role and define each look,” adds the creative director. And what better illustration than these bags draped like precious dresses or the breathtaking beauty of those wide-brimmed hats worn like jewelry? The designs celebrate the Parisian joie de vivre and transform and transmute with finesse, such as elegant beaded shoes that rise along the leg like precious ivy, or embroidered gloves wrapping the arms like a bolero.

This season, the Choc heel – launched in 1959 – is back in the limelight. “The heel is the most important detail. It’s like the nose on a face: it is what provides character,” Roger Vivier, who studied sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts of Paris, once declared. “When I develop a shoe, I approach it like a fashion
designer, and I try to create a new line,” he added. A perspective that paid off, with his inverted structure, which borrows as much from art as from fashion, and which the press of the time described as “strange, downward-sloping stiletto heels.” Today, the Maison’s designs elaborate upon this unique form of expression, honoring the innovative, pioneering spirit of its founder.

Let us not forget that Monsieur Vivier was known as the Fabergé of footwear. He was the first to bring the techniques and materials of Haute Couture to the world of accessories. Whether for daytime or evening, adorning his shoes with embroidery and draping. As early as the 1950s, the designer customarily built a look from the shoe up, using an accessory to transform a woman’s allure.

Gherardo Felloni strives to carry that innovative approach forward by integrating those techniques into this collection. This parallel conveys the full daintiness and preciousness of the fine craftsmanship that brings a special aura to Vivier creations. Draping, flounces, embroidery... This constellation of ethereal, masterful techniques meets the graphic energy of the Choc heel and the iconic Viv’ Choc Me bag, another of the Maison’s signatures. This season, this emblematic model also takes inspiration from the draping technique. Gherardo Felloni chose to craft the Viv’ Choc Me in a leather as supple as fabric and as soft and silky as velvet, and to top it with a softly rounded buckle that reflects the curves of the Choc heel.
This collection is like a tribute to the exquisitely Parisian elegance and carefree spirit distinctive of the Vivier woman.