Roger Vivier steps into the luxury sneaker game
So many European luxury labels have stepped into the high-end sneaker game over the last few years that the news is hardly worth spilling ink (or slinging pixels) over when another brand sprints into the arena. But Paris-based Roger Vivier, which rolled out its first two sneaker styles for spring and summer 2016, is a standout — even among the legacy luxury brands.
That’s because the 53-year-old French label’s namesake founder was as much a sculptor as a shoe designer, a man who focused almost fetishistically on the heel. In his hands, women’s shoes approached the ornamentation of a Fabergé egg: adorned with jewels, feathers and ruffles, combined with eye-catching colors rarely seen outside a crayon box. Vivier’s career achievements included designing a pair of gold kidskin pumps with ruby-studded heels for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation (1953), whittling heels down to stiletto proportions (1954) and introducing a handful of new heel shapes including the comma-shaped “Virgule” heel (1963) that would go on to become a signature of the brand.
After the designer died in 1998, the brand was acquired and relaunched in 2004 by the Italian leather goods group Tod’s, whose Diego Della Valle tapped creative director Bruno Frisoni to helm Maison Roger Vivier. In the years since, Frisoni has breathed new life into the brand, translating its design DNA into new products including handbags, sunglasses, small leather goods and jewelry.
Since the first style Frisoni chose to revive a dozen years ago was the Belle Vivier — a patent leather pump with a bold chrome pilgrim buckle on the vamp that became wildly popular after Catherine Deneuve wore a pair on screen in the 1967 film “Belle de Jour” — there’s a certain symbolic significance in the inaugural sneaker offerings, which hit the three U.S. Roger Vivier boutiques (including South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa locally) and Neiman Marcus in early February. One version of the rubber-soled Sneaky Viv serves up leather, canvas or silk satin versions of a classic, slip-on skate shoe silhouette with pilgrim buckles — formed out of baguette-shaped crystals — at the vamp. The other, a side-zip version of the same silhouette, references the iconic buckle shape in a tiny rectangular zipper pull emblazoned with the initials “R.V.”
“The Belle Vivier was a neutral, minimal proposal,” Frisoni said during a recent trip to Los Angeles. “It was just a pump with a thick heel and a buckle on the front .… For me, this [sneaker] silhouette is today’s equivalent.”
Frisoni said the decision to add sneakers to the luxury brand’s offerings was a simple one. “Sneakers became the most requested piece,” he said with a shrug. “Roger Vivier is a shoe brand and whatever shoe it is that people need — that people crave — that needs to be Roger Vivier.”
While the vibe of the Sneaky Viv may be more casual than the rest of the brand’s shoes, which range from $500 to $4,000 (with some exclusive styles costing more), you and your wallet would be sorely mistaken to think that the price tag was equally low-impact because the debut collection walks out the door in the $725-to-$1,325 range. And that, Frisoni said, is exactly as it should be.
“No, they aren’t cheaper. It’s not about doing a secondary line,” he said. “People don’t want that kind of item from Roger Vivier. They can go to Adidas for [less expensive sneakers]. And we’re not just trying to be expensive. There’s a certain craftsmanship and materials that justify the price.”
Apparently customers agree because, to hear Frisoni tell it, the new sneakers have been flying off the shelves, with one style of big-buckled canvas kicks covered in a festive floral print from the brand archives, selling out (it has since been restocked). He said demand has generated waiting lists “all over the world.”
Despite the early sneaker success – and the fact that well-shod celebrities including Cate Blanchett and Jaime King have been dashing through airports and turning up at art exhibition openings wearing them, Frisoni said he’s determined to take a grow-slow approach.
“We have a high-top slip-on for winter and we may introduce a lace-up, but we won’t grow too much because [Roger] Vivier is not supposed to be a sneaker brand. [Sneakers are] something that are intended to be an indispensable part of the collection — a staple.”
The sophomore fall and winter collection, which will hit retail in mid-July, hints at how Frisoni is moving beyond the buckle in translating the Roger Vivier DNA for the sneaker set. It includes a slip-on silhouette covered in an exploded black-and-white houndstooth print, another covered in all-over crystals and the aforementioned high-top slip-on festooned with feminine frills around the ankle and vamp.
While sneakers might never become truly acceptable to wear on the Hollywood red carpet, the high-end, high-style versions Roger Vivier is offering might be considered a big step in the right direction.
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