Sometimes you have to go back to the obvious to understand a House. At Berluti, this obviousness lies in a continuous line – that of an upper cut from a single piece of leather, with no superfluous seams, simply interrupted by three series of eyelets. A radical gesture, imagined at the end of the 19th century, which today finds a new interpretation with the Alessandro 1895.
The story begins with Alessandro Berluti, an Italian craftsman trained in woodworking before turning to leather. This dual culture – structure and material – informs the original design of the shoe. The idea is not decorative. It’s constructive: to reduce form to its most legible expression. A piece of leather, stretched, drilled and assembled. Nothing more.
When his son Torello opened a boutique on rue du Mont-Thabor in 1929, close to Place Vendôme, this vision took shape. The Alessandro became a founding model. A closed shoe, with no apparent quarter, where precision of cut replaces ornament. In a landscape dominated by more segmented constructions, this continuity of leather imposes another reading of the shoe: less assembled, more sculpted.
The 1895 version presented today does not seek to modernize by breaking with the past. It proceeds by displacement. The lines gain in amplitude: the volume is rounder, the silhouette less taut than some contemporary iterations such as the Démesure. This rebalancing alters the perception of the foot. The shoe no longer draws a strict line; it accompanies movement.
Technically, the construction remains faithful to the Goodyear assembly, chosen for its ability to structure the shape over time. The welt, sewn with a thick thread, affirms this architecture without making it demonstrative. The work is concentrated elsewhere: in lightening the outer leather and redesigning the sole for a more precise fit.
Venezia leather, the Maison’s signature material, plays a central role here. Its ability to absorb and transform color enables the application of an evolving patina. Two shades are available: Charcoal Brown, with a tone reminiscent of burnt wood, and Charcoal Grey, more mineral. In both cases, the surface is not set in stone. It reacts to light, changes with wear and accumulates nuances. The shoe becomes an archive of its use.
A made-to-order version extends this heritage approach. Produced in Voyage leather, from prolonged vegetable tanning, it seeks to recapture the density of the first models. A leather tattooing technique is applied to initiate controlled aging: micro-cracks, variations in hue, anticipated traces of time. The shoe no longer waits for wear and tear; it integrates its memory right from the start.
This return to the original Alessandro sheds light on Berluti’s strategy: not to multiply signs, but to deepen a form. Where others accumulate variations, the House refines a single idea – that of a shoe as a continuous surface, where the craftsman’s hand disappears behind the precision of the gesture.
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