We can do so much for you. We can fit you with shoes, but we can also dress you. We can offer you our iconic style or help you define your own. We can provide quick solutions or take our time, whichever suits you.
In 1895, when Alessandro founded Berluti, it all began with an exceptional lace-up oxford. Nearly 130 years later, the scope of possibility has continued to expand, and the talents have continued to diversify.
The hands of our shoemakers continue to craft exceptional and bespoke shoes. The hands of our tailors assemble outstanding clothing in pursuit of the absolute expression of elegance. Our creative studio imagines innovative collections: the shoe and leather goods designs are entirely crafted at our manufacture in Ferrara, Italy, while high-end craftsmen produce the ready-to-wear clothing.
Creative minds, expert fingers, experienced hands...
At Berluti, we do it all for you.
BERLUTI STYLE
Berluti is a style and creation Maison, proud of perpetuating superb craftsmanship, working with the finest materials, endlessly innovating and questing... But Berluti is not an understated Maison. It’s proud to be loud.
Berluti style is bold. Not only in its colours and patinas – an audacious purple, an orange, a brown of incomparable depth… but in its ideas, too. Ideas like bringing to life a high-heeled shoe for men, or like magnifying the script on an old notarial deed to create the unmistakable Scritto pattern. Over time, these ideas have attained iconic status. So, too, may the latest ones.
Berluti style is also cultured, because it’s informed and sustained by a precise history of menswear. The classic chore jacket gains added cachet, with a handsome new version in two contrasting materials of rich blue. The field jacket, trucker jacket, varsity jacket and military parka are also elevated by a fresh choice of materials, colours, and finishes.
First and foremost, though, Berluti style is about people – because the Maison’s history has been forged by strong characters, iconic stars, designers, and talents. There are the great names who built Berluti’s destiny from the inside: Alessandro, Torello, Talbinio, Olga. And there are those who stepped into Berluti one day and never left: Marcello Mastroianni, Andy Warhol, and Jean Cocteau, among so many others... Then there are the craftspeople who lovingly design, cut out, and hand-patinate Berluti shoes, one pair at a time. This form of luxury is incarnate and living; under the sway of inspirations and moods, at the mercy of a brush stroke or a stroke of genius, it is absolutely unique.
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.
ICONS AND SIGNATURES
THE ALESSANDRO
History walks on
In 1895, a young Alessandro Berluti came to Paris with the firm intention of earning his place among the capital’s best shoemakers. Having been trained as a cabinetmaker, he quickly put to use his mastery of shapes and materials to create an apparently seamless lace-up shoe crafted from a single piece of leather. Its pure lines quickly gained the designer renown throughout the salons of the Belle Époque. Berluti was born, thanks to the Alessandro. The illustrious shoe was designed to last, and indeed it has stood the test of time, taking on new forms. In particular, its design is apparent in the iconic Démesure and Galet lines. More than a century after its creation, it remains the embodiment of the House style.
THE ANDY
The bold spirit of a loafer
The Andy is a loafer unlike any other, because its history is extraordinary, judge for yourself. One morning in 1962, Yves Saint Laurent entered the boutique on 26 Rue Marbeuf alongside Andy Warhol. The pop art master had just come up with an idea for a pair of shoes, and he decided to have them crafted by Torello Berluti, the master shoemaker-in-residence.
But the unusual sketch left the craftsman dubious. Without a word, Olga – Torello’s first cousin once removed, who had joined the House three years earlier – took it upon herself to develop an unprecedented design to satisfy this one-of-a-kind customer. Thus the slimline loafer with raised stitching along the vamp was born. The artist was immediately thrilled with it, as would be generations of elegant gentlemen to come. Nearly 60 years after its creation, the Andy has been reinvented a number of times, but it maintains its avant-garde look and legendary status among the Berluti collections.
THE LEATHER JACKET
L'aventure, c'est l'aventure
Let’s take it back to January 2013. In the courtyard of École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris, some twenty models stride forth wearing Berluti on their shoulders. One hundred and seventeen years after opening as a shoemaker – and a few decades after the invention of ready-to-wear footwear – this is the day that the House would reveal its first full ready-to-wear collection, designed by Alessandro Sartori.
The pièce de résistance of the collection was a hand-patinated black leather motorcycle jacket. The first in a long line of models made extraordinary by the use of Venezia leather, this jacket bridged the gap between two distinct periods, thanks to its beautiful material and craftsmanship. A new horizon was opening to Berluti.
THE JOUR LINE
Slung over the shoulder
Berluti shoes tell a lot of the House history, but there are other chapters worth a browse.
In 2005, Berluti launched its first leather goods line with a twocompartment Venezia briefcase called the Deux Jours.
Patinated, supple and distinctive, it was the first in a long series of designs of which the names directly refer to their purposes. From the small Un Jour briefcase to the Jour Off travel bag, the line gradually took on new formats that adapt to various lifestyles and especially different occasions. A weekend trip, a few days off, or just a hop from one meeting to the next... There is a bag for every occasion.
VENEZIA LEATHER
Patinated by time
But how did she manage it? Behind each of Olga Berluti’s inventions was a precise inspiration. In this case, observing the influence of the moon on the leather inspired Olga to invent this play on colours, contrasts and transparent effects that heightens the beauty of Venezia leather.
THE SCRITTO
Spelling out style
Scarification, piercing, tattoos: in the 1990s, Olga Berluti brought the House into a new, desacralised relationship with leather. Beyond its role as a material, she began to explore it as a “second skin” full of meaning and stories.
As the new millennium dawned, Olga continued to experiment. She decided to have calligraphed letters directly embossed onto Venezia leather, turning it into a luxury parchment. From then on, the slender swirls of this emblematic script have regularly been brought out of the archives at various times to adorn new versions of shoes or bags such as the Toujours tote bag.
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