What Berluti is known for
Parisian shoemaker since 1895 — the Alessandro wholecut, Venezia leather, and patina worked like watercolor. LVMH-owned, and still the summit of French men's shoes.
Alessandro Berluti, an Italian craftsman, established his Paris bootmaking house in 1895; four generations of the family shaped it, none more visibly than Olga Berluti, who developed the house's defining art — the patina. Berluti shoes are colored not by dyed leather but by hand-applied translucent washes built into cognacs, plums, and blues of unusual depth, often over Venezia leather, the house's supple calfskin. The result made shoes into objects closer to polished furniture or old paint. The Andy loafer, named for Warhol, is the emblematic model. Under LVMH ownership the house expanded into a full menswear wardrobe and leather goods carrying the same patinated surfaces and its scritto motif — eighteenth-century calligraphy engraved into leather. Bespoke remains at the summit in Paris. The classic models in a hand-finished patina are the essential Berluti: color as craft.
Existing pairs can be sent for re-patination as colors evolve with wear; the service, like the original finish, is done by hand and worth using.
In the press
- GQ 2018
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Patinated Venezia-leather shoes, from Alessandro wholecuts to bespoke.
France; Handmade in Italy and France; Italy
More in Paris
- Balenciaga — Paris
- Bourrienne Paris X — Paris
- Cartier — Paris
- Céline — Paris
- Chanel — Paris
- Charvet — Paris
- Creed — Paris
- Dior — Paris
Where next
- J.M. Weston — France
- Max e Giò Calzoleria — Italy
- Sutor Mantellassi — Florence
In the Journal
Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement