Walking into the new Maison Vivier felt like crossing universes. For fashion devotees, it was paradise; for architects and interior aesthetes, a dream in limestone and light. And for the merely curious, it was a keyhole view into the mystery of style itself.
Every corner of this house distilled the spirit of Roger Vivier – a celebration of sixty years spent sculpting the way the world walks.
Paris has a particular kind of light in the late afternoon – that gentle, golden haze that turns stone to silk and makes time feel weightless. It was caught perfectly on the façade of 98 Rue de l’Université, where Roger Vivier opened the doors to its new home: a sanctuary of invention, memory, and extravagance.
The House that once taught the world to walk in sculpted heels has returned to its spiritual Left Bank address – not to chase nostalgia, but to remind Paris, and the world, how to dream again.
Stepping Inside a Story
The entrance feels cinematic – a courtyard of pale stone, windows breathing open to the hum of the city, a staircase gilded but modest about it. Every inch of this hôtel particulier whispers that this is not a boutique. It’s a kind of devotion.
Upstairs, rooms unfold like chapters from a story written jointly by Roger Vivier and his modern successor, Gherardo Felloni. The past and present cohabit effortlessly: Regency chairs flirt with modernist sculptures, and in one corner, a pair of shoes gleam like artifacts from another age.
One salon radiates authority – steel shelves cradle the curved silhouettes of Vivier’s icons: the Virgule, the Choc, the Belle Vivier. Another room is more playful – a surrealist drawing room where art books and velvet cushions seem to converse in whispers. The feeling is less maison de mode than home of a polymath.
The Archive as Heartbeat
And then – the sacred space. The archives.
Here, the shoes aren’t displayed so much as worshipped. Each pair is a gesture frozen mid-movement: a 1955 sandal crafted for Dior, a prototype once meant for a princess, the square-buckled Belle Vivier that redefined a generation’s stride. They prove that the boldest designs can also be the most restrained.
The remarkable thing is how alive it all feels. The past isn’t boxed or dusted; it breathes. The sketches still carry fingerprints, the leather still gleams with intent. History here has a heartbeat – the pulse of creation itself.
Felloni’s Parisian Theatre
If the archive is the soul, Felloni’s studio is the pulse. His office looks as if a poet and a botanist decided to share a Paris apartment: pink walls, green trim, vases of wildflowers, a Chinese rug that defies geometry. On his desk, one can image an espresso cooling beside a portrait of a dog and a stack of antique shoe forms. It’s whimsical, but serious about beauty – the kind of space that reminds you curiosity is the truest form of luxury.
For the Maison’s opening, Felloni revealed the Belle Vivier 60, honouring six decades of a shoe that quietly revolutionised modern elegance. The iconic buckle remains – proud, architectural, unmistakable – but the variations shimmer across lacquered leather, silk, and mirrored metallics. They don’t shout; they glow, like memories revived. You almost expect to see Catherine Deneuve or Marlene Dietrich turn the corner, their footsteps echoing softly on the parquet.
Sixty Years Of A Walk That Changed Fashion
When the Belle Vivier debuted in 1965, it reshaped the fashion world. Its daring chrome-plated buckle and sleek silhouette became synonymous with French elegance. The design was the first to feature Vivier’s now-iconic buckle, a hallmark that endures today.
The shoe achieved cinematic immortality in Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), where Catherine Deneuve wore them, cementing the Belle Vivier as a symbol of chic minimalism.
Even before the Belle Vivier, Roger Vivier made history: in 1953, he designed a pair of gold leather pumps for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Featuring a subtle fleur-de-lis motif echoing the Imperial State Crown, these shoes were so exceptional that Vivier attended the royal ceremony personally – a rare honour for a designer. In 2020, Vivier reimagined these historic shoes, preserving the fleur-de-lis motif and adding hand-applied crystals, merging heritage with contemporary flair.
Vivier is also credited with creating the first modern stiletto heel in the early 1950s, earning him the nickname “the Fabergé of footwear.” Under Gherardo Felloni, the brand continues to honour this legacy. The Belle Vivier 60 collection celebrates six decades of iconic design while remaining modern, playful, and innovative – a testament to Vivier’s philosophy that elegance evolves without losing its essence.
