Bruno Frisoni platform heels spring summer 2008 ($995 & $1,045 at Vivre)

Beloved and esteemed for his great romantic taste for fantasy, the legendary master of Haute Couture fashion footwear Bruno Frisoni is a distinctive designer with a unique passion for shoes. Born in 1960 in France to Italian parents, Bruno Frisoni is literally a child of fashion. At barely twenty years old, he enters into the magical world of fashion by accepting the position of assistant for the accessories studio at Jean-Louis Scherrer. Being initially tempted by the ready-to-wear fashion around him, the young Frisoni soon develops a stronger passion for the shoe.

During the years after, Bruno Frisoni vastly establishes himself among the biggest fashion houses and starts entering into collaborations. Acknowledged by the biggest in fashion for his ability to create footwear , fit to be labelled Haute Couture, he designs shoe collections for European luxury fashion houses as Yves Saint Laurent, Lanvin, Christian Lacroix, Emmanuel Ungaro and Karl Lagerfeld.

In 2001, Bruni Frisoni decides to cease his collaborations with the established fashion houses to devote himself full time to his own label “Bruno Frisoni” that he founded in 1999. Having total control and freedom of his creations, the iconic designs are presented in collections of dreamlike stories with mysterious names like “Poses Bohèmes”. His signature style of fantasy romantic is expressed in an creative abundance of ribbons, strong sewing detailing on precious high-quality materials and leathers, all infused with a touch of retro inspiration. Not lead by design nor trends but working with a personal approach of the shoe, Bruno Frisoni nourishes the world of fashion shoes of a new modernity.

Over the last five years Bruno Frisoni did not only bring his own brand to the highest level of footwear, he also revived the world’s most chic French shoe brand Roger Vivier. Credited with inventing the stiletto heel in 1954, the recognition and legacy of shoe designer Roger Vivier nearly dissolved after his death in 1998. After having acquired the historical French luxury shoe brand in 2000, Italian luxury goods maker and founder of Tod’s Diego Della Valle appoints Bruno Frisoni as Artistic Director in 2003. On a mission to revive the outdated brand Frisoni combines the traditional skills of the house with his own interpretation of the brand’s classics. In March 2004 he presents his first collection comprising the updated and remodelled version of the signature Roger Vivier “Pilgrim” flat shoe. Showing more toe cleavage with its shortened top and embellished with a narrower buckle, the brand’s best selling shoe is renamed “La Belle Vivier” and has become again a symbol of status among privileged circles of the lucky few. With prices ranging $ 400 to over $ 17,000 for exotic leather variations and a assuring regained brand recognition Frisoni’s mission to reinvent Roger Vivier seems to be more than completed.