While his silhouettes tend to be classic, they’re never expected and never boring—much like the women Frisoni caters to.
Three years after Bruno Frisoni launched his eponymous shoe label in 1999—a pump composed of denim scraps sourced from a vintage jacket was an early creation—he was asked to revive Roger Vivier, the storied French house that remains indelible thanks to a square-buckled cameo on Catherine Deneuve inBy the time Frisoni showed his final Vivier collection in 2018—he’d shuttered his own line in 2011—he had cemented his reputation as a fantastical designer adept at using everything from feathers,...
Not long after departing Vivier, though, Frisoni found that he simply couldn’t resist sketching once again. That turned into manipulating fabrics to see how they would look on a shoe, which led to making some samples, which led to his relaunching Bruno Frisoni as a “startup,” as he calls it. “It was something I couldn’tPhoto: Courtesy of Bruno Frisoni
Free to design as he pleased, Frisoni found himself “revisiting some of my obsessions,” including riotous florals and ribbons. And while his silhouettes tend to be classic, they’re never expected and never boring—much like the women Frisoni caters to. “The women who wear my shoes have a very strong character,” he says. “They love fantasy, and they love something that is different.”
Once again he used salvaged jean jackets as source material for some of the pieces—“using existing materials immediately delivers a cool factor,” Frisoni says. One mule came to life after he draped a piece of leather a certain way and found that it resembled a sculpture by John Chamberlain, perhaps best known for his use of scrap metal from old automobiles.
His return is well-timed: After a recent evolution toward sneakers, lower heels, and ugly-chic shoes, putting on something so playful, so colorful, and so pretty feels like an act of joyous defiance—and this, Frisoni says, is only a hint of what’s to come. “Expect more daring, more uniqueness—whether in material, shape, or volume.” The refinement, he assures me, will remain at its current high level. “I believe sexy and sophisticated shoes needed an update.