Roger Vivier

Shoe designer Roger Vivier

Known as the “Fabergé of footwear,” Roger Vivier created some of the most important shoes of the mid-20th century, first as designer for Christian Dior when Dior opened a shoe department in 1953. During the 1950s Vivier invented the stiletto heel, imitating the small, taper-bladed dagger for which it is named. The seductive spiky stiletto was made possible by an internal strengthening rod of steel. Vivier created other highly original heels mimicking such forms as the comma, a ball, a pyramid and escargot.

In 1963 Vivier’s opend his own Paris salon and in 1967 he created the iconic chrome-buckle, square-toe Pilgrim flat worn by Catherine Deneuve in Luis Buñuel’s 1967 film Belle du Jour. Catherine turned the shoe into an overnight must-have that remains a classic to this day.




The classic Catherine Deneuve in Belle du Jour

Vivier died in 1998 at the age of 90 but his spirit lives on in a brand that is now stronger than ever, thanks to creative director Bruno Frisoni. In 2001, Frisoni was asked to inject modernity into the rich heritage of the brand.

“Our ambition,” says Frisoni, “is to create a brand, not to set up another shoe shop.” An art critic recently argued that Vivier shoes are high art, on a par with a Picasso or a Canaletto.

For Frisoni, who cites Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert among his muses, “They are like jewels for the feet. They are a subtle and powerful luxury. Sexy, but never garish. The shoe is an accessory of seduction. Seduction is the watchword of my designs at Roger Vivier.”

Examples of Vivier’s designs are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Musée de la Mode et du Textile in the Palais du Louvre, Paris. I think Roger Vivier would be pleased.