All In The Details

For Italian cordwainer Gianvito Rossi, creating shoes is a calling. He tells ALICE FRANKLIN about his obsession with the finer points of footwear design.

- Alice Franklin

GIANVITO ROSSI has moved house – but barely. From one side of On Lan Street in Central to the other, the eponymous Italian shoe brand has simply crossed the road, inviting loyal clients into a slightly larger two-storey space that is both intimate and inviting. Narrow shimmering gold shelving frames the interior, decked with lavish shoe styles that sum up the Gianvito Rossi aesthetic: classic elegance touched with modern luxury.

As I tread up stairs laid with an ultra-feminine blush carpet into a low-ceilinged second floor room, the man behind the brand steps over the threshold. It’s his first visit to the new store, although not to Hong Kong. He takes a few minutes to inspect the immaculate fittings and fixtures, casting an approving eye over the perfectly considered space that was designed in collaboration with Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola. The store is a symbol for the Rossi label, all quiet style and endless sophistication. Rossi himself shares the same traits, arriving impeccably and effortlessly dressed in a single breasted navy suit with a white shirt and a pocket square folded just so. Sprezzatura personified.

Gianvito Rossi the brand was born of its founder’s love affair with the world of shoes. Rossi hails from San Mauro Pascoli in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, where, thanks to his father, the renowned shoe designer Sergio Rossi, he grew up surrounded by footwear. It was, in fact, the end of Gianvito’s chapter in his father’s company that led him to begin his own collection.