'I just love feet'

Interview with Olga Berluti, the world's only female bootmaker, whose clients are people who crave excellence.

Interview with Olga Berluti, the world's only female bootmaker, whose clients are people who crave excellence.

David Meagher: Do you always look at people’s feet?
Olga Berluti: Quite often. Maybe too often. But I love it. I just love feet.

Why do you think you like feet so much?
I was raised in a convent and in a huge corridor and there was this big sculpture of Christ and Christ’s feet was at my height and they were just magnificent and there was a nail in the feet and it broke my heart. And so I made myself the solemn promise every day that I would remove the nail from men’s feet when I grow up. So that was my true calling, and it started when I was 6 years old.

Where do you get your inspiration from?.
Well I get my inspiration from men’s requests, I’m inspired by everything. I only design and create something when I’m ready for it and I refuse to have constraints. I don’t want to heed anybody’s request for creation, I create when I’m ready for it.

You’ve made shoes for some of the most famous men of the twentieth century. What have you learned from them?
I’ve made shoes for people who are not famous too. There was also a master butcher who I saw walk past my shop for 40 years and before he retired he came to the shop and he ordered a pair of shoes from my store. I said, why is it that you want bespoke shoes and he said look, I have been cutting meat for 40 years you have a way to make cowhide sublime and I want to wear such sublime leather to make my life worth it. And he taught me a lot by saying that.
So I think that I have learned a lot from men whatever their business was, whether they were ordinary workmen, or business men or politicians or movie stars. Yves Saint Laurent taught me many, many things. I learned a lot from him from the very day he started working at Dior. He never said a thing, it was just his gaze, his eyes that taught me many things. The one who literally made my business was Andy Warhol, I made my first pair of shoes for him.

How did Andy Warhol come to be your first customer?
At the time if you were an elegant man all you needed was three pairs of shoes for your lifetime: one for the loafers, one for the laced shoes and one for the ankle boots. Andy Warhol used to come twice or three times a year and each time he came to make a different last, he wanted flat shoes, he wanted heeled shoes, he wanted pointed shoes and father Berluti used to say this person doesn’t know what he wants, he’s a maverick. He left me to deal with him. One of the styles we did for him is still in the collection today so he’s the one who literally built the company.

Can you tell what a man is like by looking at his feet?
Yes. You know what my grandfather used to say is show me how you walk and I will tell you who you are. And so I can say, show me your feet and I will tell you who you are. To me a foot is always beautiful, it’s never ugly. 

Did you always know you wanted to work in the family business?
When I was a teenager I only had one dream: I wanted to make shoes and I wanted to become a boot maker. But that was not possible unfortunately because there was not such a job for a woman then. My grandfather used to say you will get married you’ll have children you’ll be a wonderful wife and mother. I did not have dreams about Prince Charming, I had dreams about beautiful feet.

So how did you break in to the business?
I tried to become friends with people who were involved with the medical field because I wanted them to teach me about feet and so for 10 years I learned everything there is not know about feet. So when a difficult customer came to the shop with very difficult feet I was the one who came to look after that customer. My grandfather would say well this one is going to be trouble, he’s for you. And these were literally the only customers I had access to. They were very harsh and I learned everything from them. They taught me everything because they taught me to be very concentrated and I had this absolute urge to learn from them.

So what changed? When was it decided that you would take over the family business?
Nothing was ever decided clearly in that way, the customers decided how things came to be. Nothing was ever said, it’s just the way it was done and it just happened one day. I never signed a contract.

You now have 50 stores around the world, has it changed how you work?
Of course the business has grown and there was a time when we had 3000 customers and I knew all of them, but after 50 years and now we have 300,000 customers and I don’t know all of them but I still have the same lifestyle. I live modestly, I don’t drive a car, I live in the same apartment and everything I do comes from the heart.
I only have one regret in life and that is when I take the Metro and I see people and they are not wearing Berluti shoes and I think, "what a shame, you would be so comfortable in my shoes."
That’s the only regret I have when I see people not wearing my shoes, I would love them to wear my shoes because if they wore my shoes they would love me. I always have this idea of love in mind, infinite love.

Would you ever open a Berluti boutique in Australia?
I love Australia and I have Australian customers who come to Paris and they are so extraordinarily open. Maybe one day.

Should Berluti shoes be treated like precious objects?
Berluti shoes, when they are new, they only look like the dead cow they are made of and the craftsmanship that has been put into them. They become divine once they have been worn in by the person who wears them. It is the customer who breathes life into them. The shoes must be worn, they must be broken, they must be re-soled, repaired. I could never throw away a pair of shoes, never.

So why do your shoes need to be polished with Dom Perignon?
It’s very simple. It’s not too sweet because sugar will make your shoes dirty and it must be chilled because it is the low temp that really fixes the wax on your shoes and makes your shoes shine. I have also tried to polish shoes with cognac – the honey coloured shoes, and it’s fantastic.

Read the feature story in Wish magazine's annual design issue, free with metro editions of The Australian today.