When Louis Vuitton needed a line of prêt-a-porter shoes they naturally turned to the home of luxury shoemaking: Italy. It was no surprise that when this globally recognised symbol of French luxury decided to open a new manufacturing facility in 2005, they located it in the Veneto region in the northeast of the country. Bespoke went to visit, and found a modern factory using the most advanced techniques and technologies, where nothing is imported, and the shoes are conceptualised, designed and produced under one roof.
Louis Vuitton is renowned worldwide as a symbol of luxury and French chic, while Italian shoes have long had the reputation of being among the best you’ll find anywhere. How then could combining the two ever result in anything other than a winning formula? The company has an exclusive product range that includes luxury travelling trunks, leather goods, watches, jewellery, accessories, sunglasses and books. People who own items with the famous ‘LV’ monogram logo are making a statement, “I have style, taste, elegance … and money.”
But you can’t maintain a business like LV on reputation alone. You need a product with genuine quality to back up the hype. That’s why, when the company needed a state-of-the-art site to create its new range of ready-to-wear footwear, they looked no further than just outside Padua. To back up this with real star quality, they ensured that all the raw materials for the shoes were sourced locally that the shoes were made by Italians, and to come up with eye-popping designs equal to material, they sent for a young Italian designer with a growing reputation: Fabrizio Viti.
Since its establishment in 1854 Louis Vuitton has grown to become a worldwide corporation and the famous LV monogram, based originally on Japanese and Oriental designs that were enormously popular in the late Victorian era, became synonymous with style. It merged in 1987 with other luxury brands Moët et Chandon and Hennessy, to create the LVMH group, and is now more successful than ever. There are currently around 130 Louis Vuitton boutiques around the globe from New York to Tokyo via London and Paris. The passing of time has not been unkind to the company as it strolls elegantly into its fourth half century of catering to the particular needs of the elite.
Although relative newcomers to the Louis Vuitton fold, the ready-to-wear shoes have dovetailed neatly with the other product lines. Creative genius Fabrizio Viti’s striking and beautiful designs have taken the new range straight to the top of many a must-have list. Stitched together with loving attention to detail in Padua, the shoes not only adhere to the company maxim that demands all its products are sleek, elegant, and worth the not insubstantial price tags attached to them.
In 2009 the influential fashion website handbag.com listed not one but two pairs of LV shoes in its list of what it termed the ‘Top 10 crazily priced fashion must-haves’. As well as the company’s Graffiti trainers (retailing at around 1,100 USD), it listed the striking Tribal sandals range as essential (prices start from around 1,600 USD) and described them the collaboration between Viti and LV’s creative director Marc Jacobs as: “Inspired by a wanton fertility goddess.” Fashion icons like Victoria Beckham and British presenter-cum-model Alexa Chung are known to be fans. “If you like your shoes adorned with rope, luxury skins, feathers, beads, baubles and mini masks … these are for you,” handbag tells us.
Fabrizio Viti has been with Vuitton since 2004, having already honed his art with Patrick Cox of Prada, and at Tom Ford’s side while at Gucci. A quiet man who is said to prefer easy listening to hip-hop, it came as quite a surprise to the fashion world when a few years ago he teamed up with American rap star Kanye West to create a new range of trainers. “He’s probably taught me more than I’ve taught him,” Viti admitted in an interview at the time. “But actually, working with Marc Jacobs and working with Kanye West is very similar. They have both got the same drive and work ethic. Kanye is a true style icon, so we had to come up with trainers he would want to wear himself. Anytime, anywhere. The perfect shoe.”
The perfect shoe. It’s a sentiment that echoes throughout Viti’s entire range for Louis Vuitton. And ‘perfect’ is just the way the company likes all its products to be. A marriage made in Heaven.
www.louisvuitton.com
