Hands Up: Gherardo Felloni (Roger Vivier)

MANO PRIMORDIALE 

“As a child, I did everything with my hands: cutting, drawing, painting, gardening, and of course, expressing myself through them and with them. As an Italian, the hands giving meaning to words is a legacy. I was born in Tuscany, near Arezzo, and grew up in the countryside. My father and my uncle had a shoe factory, LAMOS, founded in 1958, and I used to go to the factory where I stayed with the craftsmen, I enjoyed cutting the tinted leathers and playing with the heels. They subcontracted for Hermès, Gucci, Prada. They made the prototypes.  Now, when I’m on the street, in business meetings, I draw. Or transform: even with a subway ticket, I roll it, I cut it. The appearance of my hands, I don’t like them all that much; they are small and short, but they are have talent. Often I go to the factory and I cut, I cut. For a jewel loop, I like to compose, to assemble the crystals. I find it’s usually easier to do than to explain. For this collection, I was inspired by the Shock heel, the opposite of the Comma. I interpreted it with a classic outline and I asked Eric Charles Donatien to embroider it with feathers. I showed him the archive model, then he showed me samples. I gave him some colours. He did some tests, we moved forward like that. It’s a real conversation. It will be a custom model. Without this complicity, the profession cannot exist. It is necessary to preserve the European know-how because it is an absolute resource, paramount.”