Strange, but while Dubai continues to be proud of being a recognized center for international shopping, this brand only appeared here this year, four years after Mos Mos. Why brand owners have decided to finally present their unique collections in the Arabian region, it becomes clear when you go to the small Berluti boutique in the Mall of the Em irates. Everything here speaks of selectivity, luxury, and manual, or, perhaps, even piece work. But the most interesting thing is that a woman creates exquisite and unique shoes for men. Meet Olga Berluti.
- Olga, you have such a Russian name. Are you sure that you have only Italian roots?
- Of course (laughs). It’s just that Italy also loves the name Olga. It has its roots deep in the past, though much further than the history of our family business. Then please tell us about your family business, which was started by men, but you continue.
Berluti shoes appeared at the end of the 19th century. The founder of the Berluti dynasty - Alessandro Berluti - moved from his native Italy to Paris, where he began to manufacture shoes for individual orders. Back in 1885, Alessandro came up with a model of men's shoes sewn from a single piece of leather. No rough seams, nothing more, nowhere rubs. These shoes have become famous. Subsequently, the technology only improved.
Alessandro's son, Torello, continued his family business and in 1928 opened the 26th Luxury Shoes from Berluti store in Rue Marbeuf, capital of France. His first models - classic shoes with laces made of thin, solid leather and Napoleon III boots - were liked by many celebrities and royal blood. Berluti ordered shoes from the Duke of Windsor, who spoke of the boots as "beautiful, albeit a little vulgar." By the way, Berluti boots today have a special double “Windsor” knot for tying shoelaces, invented specifically for royal ladies, whose shoes should not have been untied during social events and government receptions. Then we continued the family business: Talbinio Bernuti and I, Olga Bernuti, his cousin. Today I lead the Berluti brand, and all that you see in our collections is basically my ideas and my vision of modern luxury men's shoes.
- Olga, the truth is said that you thoroughly studied the anatomy of the male foot, adore men, their legs and their shoes?
- Yes, I know men very well and understand what they want. Believe me, no man in the world will sacrifice the convenience of shoes for the sake of her beauty. Men are moody creatures, and no beauty will make them sacrifice their own comfort. That is why people who have bought Berluti shoes once, wear them for decades and do not complain about inconvenience, but, on the contrary, tell everyone about the unprecedented quality, durability and longevity of our shoes and boots. Moreover, in our Parisian boutique you can always restore any well-worn Berluti shoes. There, in addition, you can choose the color of the finished shoes yourself: many shoes are sold as some kind of semi-finished product, that is, unpainted. When a new owner chooses a shoe color, his pair is “patinated”. This is also a whole ceremony: fully finished shoes are given to the owner in a few days.
We sew custom-made shoes in our workshops in Paris. Our specially trained measurers take measurements from the male foot for at least 40 minutes (usually longer). This is a whole action that begins with massage of the feet so that the foot relaxes and the measurements are as accurate as possible. By the way, soon such a measurer will also appear in the Dubai boutique, but the order will still be sent to France and it will take about six months, maybe a year, to wait for the finished pair.
- Why so long?
“In addition to the fact that all the stages of manufacturing our shoes are handmade, it’s also very important to give the product a“ rest ”for some time after each operation. Therefore, usually we order several pairs of shoes at once, so that the wait is not so tiring. Berluti boots are iconic shoes; they don’t just wear them. It is collected, restored and repainted from time to time. And as with almost every cult brand, this success is associated both with numerous stories from the life of celebrities, and with a sense of elitism, belonging to the club of the elite.
- Olga, after all, does such a club of Berluti shoe fans really exist?
- Yes, the club of connoisseurs of our brand is called Swann. Once a year we arrange receptions for our fans. An obligatory element of the dress code at the reception are Berluti boots. At the end of the evening, our guests take off their shoes and put their expensive shoes on the table, and then pour Dom Perignon champagne on it. Such a tradition. And, mind you, nothing is done about the shoe, because all of it goes through a special process of “patinating” the skin, which I once invented. In the process of patination, the skin is bleached many times, and you can get virtually any shade of it, depending on the color of the client’s suit. Such skin is called Venecia and only Berluti brand works with it.
- Speaking of celebrities, who, apart from the Duke of Windsor, is on the Berluti shoe list?
- Oh, this list is very long. It contains Frank Sinatra, and Frederico Fellini, and Andy Warhol, and many modern Hollywood stars, and respected businessmen from Russia and other countries. By the way, in 1962, working as an apprentice, I accidentally accepted an order from a stranger and then, finding nothing in the workshop except a defective piece of calfskin with a trace of some kind of scar, I made a pair of bootloafers. The stranger when receiving the order was not an unknown respectable layman, but the famous artist Andy Warhol. He was completely delighted with the barbarian scarred boots and subsequently only ordered those from Berluti. Many people think that this is a legend, but it was so. And in our collections today you can find these famous shoes. We specially sew them.
- Olga, do you have the very first boots of the Berluti House, the end of the 19th century, in your collections today? And what special do you offer the local public?
- 
Of course. Here they are (showing me a couple). They differ from the original only in the thickness of the sole. There were no sidewalks before, and the roads were terrible, so the soles were much thicker than now. And so, this is still the same model, from a single piece of leather. And by the way, it is to the taste of many of our modern customers.
As for the local public, taking into account the love of the region's people for open shoes, we offer in Dubai luxury Berluti men's sandals, as well as almost all models from our nine pret-a-porte collections for those who need more than quality and appearance shoes, but also its unsurpassed convenience. The accessory range is represented by travel bags, briefcases and bags.
- Olga, let me thank you for the conversation and say goodbye.
- See you and thank you. I hope that our Russian customers, who have already managed to get to know Berluti shoes in boutiques in Zhukovka and in Stoleshnikov Lane in Moscow, will be delighted with her appearance in Dubai. After all, many live and work here, right? I wish you all happiness, health and comfortable shoes.
On that and parted. I don’t know what Olga told me is a carefully designed advertising move of the brand, but the feeling of being chosen in this boutique did not leave me. Even if part of the story is a legend, all the same shoes with scars have been produced by the brand since 1992 in the finished collection and sewn to order. The success of these shoes naturally led to the next stage - the appearance of collections of men's shoes with piercings and tattoos. If you consider that, according to Olga Berluti, she "really wanted to give the shoe all the shades of human skin: bronze, brown, red, copper, and so on until the dark blue shade of the skin of the Tuareg tribes," - in this shoe you can find something that primitive. More - more: wolf-footed soles in the new 2008 collection.
However, Berluti shoes are positioned this way: it is designed for male conquerors, male hunters and male winners, whose natural aggressiveness is only covered with the patina of civilization. What does it cost only to use the expensive Dom Perignon champagne at the meetings of the club for collectors and fans for other purposes ... This only further emphasizes not so much the bourgeois as the barbaric luxury of Berluti shoes, whose admirers are becoming more and more over the years.
