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Evening Standard

Lifestyle

Joe Bromley

Click-clack! Killer heels are back

Roger Vivier (Organization) Naomi Campbell

Thank goodness,” one socialite-slash-model exhaled into my ear during an art-world soirée in a Chelsea penthouse amid Frieze last month. “Everyone is finally back in their heels again.”

I scanned the marble floor and it was click-clacking indeed. The trend isn’t confined to the British capital — it’s part of a wider high-heel renaissance which has travelled from New York Fashion Week and on to the various parties of Paris as well. Stylish women (and not a few men) are once again kicking off their ballet flats and trainers and teetering into the night a few inches taller.

This is not news to Roger Vivier, the French label founded in 1937 by the man who invented the modern-day stiletto. At the beginning of this month, during Paris Fashion Week, the brand flung open the doors of its freshly renovated Maison Vivier, on the Left Bank’s Rue de l’Université, for a bustling event which more than proved the style pack’s enthusiasm for evenings on the town supported by killer pumps.

The international great and good, including Naomi Campbell, Shailene Woodley and Sarah Paulson, strutted into the townhouse where they were welcomed into the grandly named Salon de l’Héritage. The museum-style space showcases a history of the brand, known for providing the heels the late Queen Elizabeth wore at her coronation, as well as the favourite shoes of screen queens Marlene Dietrich, Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve.

The label is currently enjoying a resurgence of interest. “He invented the high heel — you imagine heels have existed forever, but not like this,” explains the effervescent curator of the room, Inès de La Fressange, the designer, former Karl Lagerfeld muse and a Vivier ambassador. “I love the eccentricity of his work, because everyone thinks the French are square and stiff, and the British are the fun ones,” she says. “It’s true in a way — but look at all these exclusive prints, these boots!

“Then came Jackie Onassis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, even the Queen of England — though not just the buckle shoe,” she says of Vivier’s famous Belle Vivier model, which was designed exactly 60 years ago. “People think of Vivier as just the buckle shoe, and that makes me angry,” de La Fressange continues. “It’s not just that — there were many, many variations, covered buckles, embroidered ones.”

Fun really is the spirit of the heel resurgence, which can be seen as something of a reclamation as well. So thinks Vivier’s creative director Gherardo Felloni, the Italian designer who has been at the helm since 2018 — and whose designs are fawned over by stars including Amal Clooney, Laura Dern, Michelle Yeoh and Eva Green.

“I’ve always loved Vivier because I’m a fan of the kitten heel, of feminine, colourful shoes — and he worked with that sparkle and playfulness,” he says, sitting in his newly designed, bright pink and green office — complete with a large Chinese Art Deco rug and antique armchairs — as waiters bring nibbles on heaving trays.

“I’m not conceptual at all,” he says. “I love colour, flowers, stones and embellishment. So I started doing what I love here and it worked. I also care about comfort. I don’t like it when women are uncomfortable or when fashion imposes something on them. I ask: what will women love next season?”

And what does he predict? “Today it’s all about freedom. Women are free — you can’t control a look,” he continues. “If I were a woman next summer, I’d wear a denim miniskirt, a T-shirt and really special shoes. Pink sequins, super-embroidered — for me, the pieces are wearable even if they’re delicate and expensive. I imagine you could wear them during the day.”

This job was a dream for a young man whose father owned a shoe factory that produced footwear for top houses including Hermès, Gucci and Prada. “When I was 19, I opened a Roger Vivier book and saw the fuchsia Virgule shoes — the first pair I ever saw not as a technical object but as something magical,” he says. “I realised shoes weren’t just a product; they could be dreamy.”

He worked on footwear at labels including Fendi, Helmut Lang and Dior under creative directors John Galliano and Raf Simons before taking on a 10-year stint at Miu Miu where he was head of footwear, leather goods and costume jewellery. Then the opening at Vivier came up and he was first in line.

“For many shoe designers, working for Roger Vivier is the dream — he’s the master,” he says. “There’s a before Roger Vivier and an after. He changed everything in shoes and invented so many things.”

Roger Vivier invented the high heel — you imagine heels have existed forever, but not like this

Felloni has brought in new shoe silhouettes, ranging from satin “Rose Vivier” sandals to booties and even trainers — “I introduced more casual shoes at Vivier because I’m sure if Roger Vivier were alive today, he would too, he was always evolving,” he says. He’s also added new costume jewellery (most notably a cuff with the Belle Vivier buckle), embellished clutches and a series of high-octane waistcoats “which to me are like jewellery for the body,” he says.

As for de La Fressange, her focus in putting together the Maison Vivier was youth. “Today fashion is run by businessmen — and they have wives with terrible looks,” she says. “They think they know something, but they don’t. What matters is what young people in the streets know — musicians, rappers — not businessmen in ties.”

It is her good fortune, then, that young people today are getting back to enjoying a slingback.