SAVOIR-FAIRE
CREATIVE CRAFTSMANSHIP
It was more than 120 years ago that Alessandro Berluti first inscribed his signature on a pair of shoes and, in doing so, founded Maison Berluti. From its early days, the Berluti style has been known for it's technical virtuosity and offbeat creativity that spring from its deep roots of savoir-faire in bespoke creation. Though Maison Berluti has kept up with the times, its spirit of craftsmanship has remained unchanged. We continue to innovate in each new chapter of the Maison’s story, pushing the limits of technique and style.
BESPOKE SHOEMAKING
Bespoke is one of the foundations of Maison Berluti. Alessandro Berluti, a cabinetmaker by training, had an extraordinary talent for sculpting wood and impeccably balancing volumes. His artistry inspired every subsequent generation. Crafting a pair of bespoke shoes involves some 250 operations, 50 hours of assembly and three appointments with a Master Shoemaker. Many specialists are involved in making bespoke shoes: the last-maker, the pattern-maker, the cutter, the stitcher. It is the peerless savoir-faire of these and other artisans that makes a Berluti shoe unique.
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THE ART OF PATINA
The Berluti patina, developed in the 1980s, revolutionised the world of men’s shoes by incorporating nuanced colours at a time when most shoes were black or brown. The Venezia leather interacts beautifully with the colours, as they take on exquisite transparency and depth. The shoes exude life and character, as each patina is unique, born of the handiwork of the Maison’s expert colourists.
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Offering bespoke tailoring was, for Maison Berluti, utterly self-evident. Though the company possessed singular savoir-faire in crafting bespoke shoes and ready-to-wear garments, offering bespoke tailoring of the same superior quality was wholly aligned the Maison’s raison d’être. And Maison Arnys was the natural choice for this service, with its 40 years of tailoring expertise. All Berluti Grande Mesure suits are created by highly trained and experienced master tailors, making Berluti the first house to offer bespoke service from head to toe.
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ALESSANDRO BERLUTI
Alessandro Berluti was born in 1865 in Senigallia, a small village in the Italian region of the Marches. After having been trained as a cabinetmaker during his youth, he left his homeland at the age of 19 to try his skills abroad. He arrived in Paris in the late 19th century, a time when the city was experiencing an explosion of creative and artistic expansion. For a decade thereafter, Alessandro worked as a shoemaker, crafting bespoke shoes for clients of international renown, men and women alike, including such sophisticated celebrities such as Isadora Duncan and Elisabeth Arden. His keen eye for aesthetic lines, coupled with a passion for working with hardwood is essential for custom footwear craftsmanship which earned him a reputation as a talented shoemaker. He showed his skills in 1895 to create a new shoe, the Alessandro lace-up. And Berluti was born.
TORELLO BERLUTI
In 1922, with the Roaring Twenties swiftly gaining momentum, Torello Berluti enthusiastically embraced the art of making bespoke shoes, guided by the perfectionism he shared with his father, Alessandro. His aesthetic sensibility and profound love for shoes gave him the finesse and instincts of a sculptor and his designs were soon admired as the quintessence of elegance and contemporary flair. In 1928, Torello opened the first Berluti workshop-store in Paris’s eighth arrondissement on rue du Mont-Thabor, then at 26 rue Marbeuf near the Champs-Elysées.
TALBINIO BERLUTI
Talbinio Berluti, born just after the war, began working in the family business alongside his father, Torello, at age 14 while also studying architecture. He was obsessed with making Berluti a household name and, driven by a thirst for change and an enlightened world view, brought Maison Berluti the international renown he craved. In 1959, Talbinio introduced Berluti’s first collection of luxury ready-to-wear footwear bearing all the hallmarks of traditional shoemaking savoir-faire. In doing so, he opened the Maison’s doors to a broader, younger, trendier clientele. “The spirit of the Maison is found where the artisan’s respect meets the artist’s defiance.”
OLGA BERLUTI
In the late 1960s, Talbinio’s second cousin, Olga Berluti, brought her vivacious energy, artistic flair, bold approach and innovative ideas to the Maison, earning Berluti even greater recognition. The rue Marbeuf store became part showroom, part lounge, where clients could sit in comfortable club chairs to savour good conversation in good company, where luminaries like François Truffaut, one of Berluti’s neighbours, could cross paths with Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, Andy Warhol or Karl Lagerfeld. Olga perfected her patina technique in the Eighties and, a decade later, created the Maison’s exclusive Venezia leather. These innovations revolutionised traditional men’s footwear by expanding the horizons of imagination and colour. She collaborated with Andy Warhol, as well, and designed the Andy loafer, a streamlined, contemporary model that remains an iconic Berluti shoe to this day.
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