For more than 100 years Berluti has been synonymous with sensational footwear. Devotees of the Paris-based brand range from Robert de Niro and Gerard Depardieu to Toulouse-Lautrec, Richard Burton and the Duke of Windsor. Put simply, ownership of these bespoke shoes means that you have arrived.
The company was founded in 1895 by Alessandro Berluti. Today his great grand-daughter Olga (who, as a teenager, used to measure shoes for Andy Warhol, after the artist was brought into the shop by his old friend Yves Saint Laurent) is at the helm. It was Olga who invented experimental finishes including smoky blacks and grey-greens, using closely-guarded polishing techniques and ingredients she keeps in old Guerlain bottles at her atelier, watched over by a dummy dressed as a samurai warrior.

Olga’s latest collection of innovative shoe designs and leather finishes include the Club Olga II – “gentrified, of course, but slightly roguish and always poetic”; the Dandy – “excessive and violent” and the Piercing collection …”like a skin with wounds, scars, gashes and piercings: a gangster’s shoe”. Available in a choice of hides, from the usual Venezia leather, to exotic crocodile and ostrich, prices start at an exorbitant £,2900. But when you consider that each pair is worked on by four dedicated Italian craftsmen over a period of six months to achieve a perfect finish, it starts to look like an offer you can’t refuse.

Venezia leather is the near magical material that gives these bags from legendary shoemaker Berluti their healthy sheen, which they share with the shoes of course. Called the Venezia Collection, the range is anchored by the 2 Jours weekend bag, not only in the sense that it is the largest but in the economy and timeless chic of the design.

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