In His Shoes

As Roger Vivier’s latest creative director replacing Bruno Frisoni’s 16-year tenure, Gherardo Felloni has large shoes to fill. Amy Yasmine discovers the 38-year-old designer is already taking it in stride, as his latest collection paid homage to the maison’s eternal classics, with a couture twist.

- Amy Yasmine

It was on a sunny day during Paris Fashion Week in a grand 6th arrondissement château, that I first encountered Roger Vivier’s newest creative director since Bruno Frisoni’s departure, Gherardo Felloni. I remember it as if it was yesterday; walking through opulent Baroque halls that had been transformed to emulate a whimsical hôtel curieuse, in celebration of Roger Vivier Spring/Summer ’19. A “receptionist” with quirky cat-eye glasses stood in a corner, greeting guests while performing splits as two French maids entertained onlookers with a playful pas de deux. And yet, somewhere in the crowd of fashion week’s glitterati—Catherine Deneuve and Inès de la Fressange were lounging in the garden behind me—a tall dark-haired man with a neatly trimmed moustache stood cheerfully, his hands moving about expressively as he spoke to a slew of editors, stylists, and friends of Roger Vivier. You could tell he was in high spirits—correction, hear his high spirits— because just as I made my way to the presentation space’s upper chambers, a perfect tenor was heard, quite like what you’d expect from the late Italian opera icon Enrico Caruso.