LIGHT ON YOUR FEET

The Hermès Fall 2022 footwear collection is a celebration of the bold yet the classic.

- Radhika Bhalla

How do you make an iconic pair of shoes? Ask Pierre Hardy, the man behind the classic Hermès Oran Sandals he created back in 1997, which continue to capture the imagination of luxury across the globe ("I thought about creating a non-shoe or as little a shoe as possible, and looked at documents about the women of the Ndebele tribe, who paint their houses... It became the success story we all know 25 years later," Pierre tells Bazaar India). But the triumph doesn't end there. Red carpets have been rife for decades with some of his most successful creations, and there are heels featuring gold, stones, and diamonds [for the Hermès 2019 theme of the Year of the Dream] and designs that could be compared to works of art. A study of his aesthetic will reveal the making of footwear legends.