My daily walk through midtown Manhattan offers an assault on the eyes from assembly line-style shoes at every street corner. A quick glance to the left and I’m blinded by formulaic faux-cheetah print pumps for $9.99. A head whip to the right and I am inundated by mounds of Crocs. Evil, plastic, shapeless, ugly, Crocs.

(I think you all understand my feelings about Crocs.)

Mass market appeal. Really, I get it. But what happened to the art of fashion? Creating beautiful shoes that were not only made to adorn the feet but also be adored by the public as works of art?

“To be carried by shoes, winged by them, to wear dreams on one’s feet, is to begin to give reality to one’s dreams.” (source)

Extravagant and awe-inspiring. So what designer would conjure up such extraordinary words? Fragonard of the shoe and the Faberge of footwear. Roger Vivier.

The shoes designed by Roger Vivier appear to be born out of a fairy tale, like Alice in Wonderland or Cinderella. If, of course, these two damsels happened to be just a bit more notorious. Roger Vivier’s creations were a bit more like fairytale creature meets punk chick meets Alice in Wonderland that forgot a few rules of Victorian propriety along the way.

Born a Parisian in 1913, Roger Rivier studied sculpture at the l’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris as well as completing an apprenticeship in a shoe factory. The knowledge of visual beauty and technical practicality gleaned from two very different realms prepared Roger to offer the world a vision of artistry and precision fit that hadn’t been seen before.

Designing for couture houses in the United Kingdom, France and the United States allowed Roger to use his inspiration gleaned from nature, history and literature breaking the mold and rules at every opportunity. Roger Vivier saw every detail, curve and technical aspect as an opportunity for novelty and beauty. He was an innovator with fabric, utilizing fabrics like clear plastic, which would be initially rejected by some houses. However, Schiaparelli embraced it in her 1938 collection (source).

Roger reinvented the world of women’s footwear in several important ways. When I say the world of women’s footwear, I’m not merely referring to shoe-crazed women like us. I’m talking about cultural icons like Ava Gardner, Queen Elizabeth II and the Beatles. Seriously. These legends were the aficionados of Vivier’s shoes.

The powerhouse combination of Christian Dior and Roger Vivier in 1947 would rock the physical and aesthetic foundations of women’s footwear. Two new heel shapes would alter the landscape and choices that we women (and men!) would have in our daily shoe lives.

First, the stiletto.

The origins of the stiletto name is just as notorious and dangerous as the wearing of the heels themselves. Stiletto daggers were favored by criminals to leave a deep wound upon its intended victim (source) This intention is not so different, I think, when a woman wears stilettos and a man’s jaw drops to the ground. Mission accomplished.

Roger wanted a new design to add height but maintain the femininity of his shoes. His answer was to fashion the heel from a long thin piece of metal. Keep it strong, thin and powerful. Mr. Vivier aptly named his new invention the Stiletto heel. At once all the rage, the stiletto may have fallen out of favor for a few years, but it has made a ferocious comeback and will never ever really go out of style. It’s safe to say the stiletto is the shoe of choice when you want to make a statement (or if you’re just up to no good!)

Reaching back into history, Roger made a formerly ‘puritan’ style totally hip. Included in this retro fashion was a new heel. The comma heel. Shaped like, well, a comma. (See below)

Although slightly precarious to balance on initially, this combination brought excitement and innovation to what could have been a very formal design. Vivier’s Pilgrim pumps with the silver buckle were all the rage and are still one of the most imitated designs to date. (See below)

The 1960′s brought an epic social, political and cultural evolution. Shoes, of course, would be no exception.
The thigh-high boot. Not just knee-high, these shoes dared to delve into a sexual territory that had long been forbidden in female fashion. Roger Vivier appliquéd, jeweled and lined these shoes with satin until the world could not ignore that these boots were not only beautiful, they made the women who wore them feel strong, powerful and beautiful.

Although Roger Vivier passed away in 1998, his designs live on as inspirations to designers all over the world, including the likes of fellow designers like Manolo Blahnik. A testament to his creations as more than just footwear, Roger Vivier’s artistic endeavors can be seen at several museums including the Musee du Costume et de la Mode of the Louvre in Paris, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London as well as the Costume Institute Museum of Art in New York.