Inside Roger Vivier’s opulent new Paris HQ and archive, a haven for shoe lovers

Since the late 1930s, Roger Vivier has stood as a landmark of artisan shoemaking in Paris. Famed for lavish embellishments, elegant pointed shapes, and use of resplendent materials, its namesake, Monsieur Vivier, viewed his craft as an expression of beauty rather than function. His vision was, at the time, revolutionary: Vivier is credited with inventing the modern stiletto, a style made globally desirable by stars like Marlene Dietrich and Elizabeth Taylor, while his foot-arching creations for Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, and Schiaparelli shaped new ideas of elegance at those houses. Just two weeks ago, Jonathan Anderson’s first womenswear collection for Dior featured bunny-eared and rosette-appliquéd homages to Vivier’s early designs for Dior, evidence of the designer’s enduring influence.

Inside ‘Maison Vivier’, Roger Vivier’s opulent new Paris HQ and archive

It feels fitting, then, that the brand’s new headquarters – just opened in Paris – should pay tribute to the life and legacy of its founder. Uniting Roger Vivier’s corporate offices, the creative studio of artistic director Gherardo Felloni, and a dedicated archive showcasing over 1,000 shoes, the new ‘maison’ is spread across the floors of an 18th-century building on Rue de l’Université, once belonging to French aristocracy. While other heritage brands might simply bear the names of their founders on the doors, behind which you’ll find rooms of sharp white-walled architecture, Roger Vivier has instead chosen to decorate its interiors in the style of Vivier’s personal Paris apartment. An opulent mixture of Louis XVI furniture, Asian sculptures, and modern art fills the grand, multi-storey space, configured by Felloni and brand ambassador Inès de la Fressange. With the archive and new ateliers, the hope is to preserve Vivier’s legacy of craftsmanship and beauty while making space for the brand’s future.

Italy-born Felloni came to Roger Vivier in 2018 from in-house design roles at Miu Miu and Prada, but his connection to the brand stretches back to when he was a teenager. ‘I have a very emotional relationship with the archive, it’s where my story with Roger Vivier truly began,’ he tells Wallpaper*. ‘When I was 19, waiting for an interview in a fashion house, I noticed a book on the table. As I started to flip through it, I came across a photograph of a pink shoe – its simplicity hid something more complex, an elegance that doesn’t age. That image struck me like lightning. Having grown up in my family’s shoe factory, I was familiar with the functional side of making shoes. But that Vivier design opened my eyes to something else entirely. It was the moment I understood that a shoe could be an artistic statement.’

For de la Fressange, it was most satisfying working on the archive, which the brand has been carefully collating over decades. Organising designs so they are proudly on view, the collection includes early iterations of the Virgule sling-back and the Belle Vivier shoe. The buckle-adorned pump made its debut on Yves Saint Laurent’s runway in 1965, swiftly becoming one of the decade’s most coveted designs (famously worn by Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour). Alongside these creations are hundreds of Vivier’s original sketches and research documents, including photographs, magazine cuttings, patterns and even Christmas cards. ‘He was a real researcher, trying and inventing new things all the time,’ says de la Fressange. ‘He still influences young designers and other brands, we can be proud of that.’

When it came to the interiors, de la Fressange wanted Vivier’s spirit to feel present in the building while balancing a contemporary mood. ‘Roger Vivier loved architecture, he studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris and was totally fond of decoration,’ she says. ‘He would say, “all that is beautiful can be together”. Of course, it would have been stupid to exactly redo the flat, but for the big living room of the hôtel particulier we wanted to keep the spirit. There are the Mies van der Rohe chairs that he loved, 18th-century furniture, contemporary paintings and even the laurel trees that he [had in his apartment]. In one room we reunited many of the collages Vivier used to do; full of colour, they are gorgeous and it was stronger to have many of them all together.’

Meanwhile, for Felloni, who has respectfully drawn upon the house’s archives throughout his tenure at Roger Vivier – both celebrating its icons like the ‘Virgule’ while creating sneaker shapes for a new generation of shoppers – the site represents a space where past and present can coexist. ‘Maison Vivier is a living place,’ he says. ‘The archive, the studio and the salons are all connected like different chambers of the same heart. History here isn’t something we look at from a distance; it’s something we work with every day. When our teams work surrounded by the pieces created by Monsieur Vivier, it’s a daily reminder of the responsibility and freedom that comes with this legacy. I hope this space becomes a source of dialogue between heritage and invention.’

Marking an exciting new chapter for the brand, the designer hopes the building and archive will serve as a touchstone of Vivier’s genius, inspiring all who walk through its doors. ‘When visitors come, I would like them to feel the same sense of discovery I had when I first saw that pink shoe – that moment when design suddenly reveals a world of emotion,’ he says. ‘It’s about keeping the spirit of Monsieur Vivier alive: curious, refined, and always a little audacious.’

rogervivier.com