Walking Tall: Shoe Factory Louis Vuitton Interior

       Paola is one of the most experienced in the workshop of Louis Vuitton shoes Fiesso d'Artico, a short drive from Venice craftsman, but when she saw the Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear show, as it was the live on a big screen on the floor factory last March, she was in tears.

It was not moved by the appearance of Kate Moss in a negligee, or the incredible size of the exposure setting in the Grand Palais in Paris, but the shoes on the feet of models 50 These included high-heeled shoes ankle bracelet with a tangle of leather on the toe, all before the show were completed in less than three weeks, with the whole plant, because most of their production on the podium.

Paola and her small team burnished each shoe by hand, carefully paint with a brush, then polish them to make them look older. Each takes up to one hour late - not including the production of the shoe itself, which has gone through more than 150 separate before they arrived at the bank Paola process. When they saw the shoes on the podium, led by Edie Campbell and Cara Delevingne, were the tears of pride and joy.

Paola is one of the many artisans in the Fiesso. Decades of experience in the footwear industry For most of the shoe is in his family for generations.

In 1997, Louis Vuitton has bought what was then a small family shoe factory and built on the expertise of the craftsmen who worked there, create a new fully integrated system. That was the year that Marc Jacobs is now the artistic director of the luxury brand in the development of the house has changed haute couture luggage. When Yves Carcelle, President Vuitton (he joined last year), the workshop opened with Serge Alfandary newly appointed Director of the Business Unit of the shoe, announced that it would be important that Asnières (workshops near Paris of Louis Vuitton in the founded in 1859) was to make the trunk.

And you see the work - a piece of concrete, steel and glass around a central courtyard with sculptures like a giant slipper made of stainless steel pans by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos made built - it is clear that they took no half measures. A concrete plinth at the entrance engraved with the Louis Vuitton logo and the legends shoe factory, because even if we are in Italy, in the heart of the oldest and most revered of the country shoe manufacturing area This is one of more than France luxury brands.

Venice has indeed a long history of shoemaking, not least for its pints of 16 Century, which in its most extreme was more like stilts as shoes and be considered as originating shoes Turkish baths on stilts. You must have been handy to navigate the flood of Venice. There is still a small community shoemaking in Venice and other designers like Vanessa Bruno and Rick Owens use a factory in the region. But only Vuitton built his own.

The building itself Vuitton is a model for social and environmental sustainability. There is enough solar panels to heat 56 percent of the hot water system and a geothermal heat pump offers the tranquility. Rainwater is collected and recycled, and wherever natural light. Shoes and moccasins cars that are part of are more - The main building, each dedicated in four separate workshops, which rather oddly named "shoes stylish women 'trainers moccasins for men and women divided important for businesses Vuitton shoes (despite the seemingly small team of men and women who hand-stitch each moccasin with a needle and thread) and classic men shoes with leather soles that are hand painted and polished at the end of the process.

While the situation in clothing and accessories factories were under surveillance recently, I can tell you that working conditions are exemplified in Fiesso. The 620 workers are at 8.30 clock clock and departure at 17:30 on the dot. At 12:15 clock the bell rings and all the staff in their dark suits, aprons Monogram butter-yellow (or white coat in the case of monitoring) tools down and comes in clear, white canteen on the first floor (it has a Terrace), where they have lunch and a soft drink espresso before returning to their work station an hour later.

The company operates a training program so that craftsmen with 30-40 years experience can pass on their knowledge to younger generations. There is little hierarchy in the workshop. "Everyone has their own reason to be here," said Alfandary. "They are empowered to take responsibility for what they take., It is not teachers and craftsmen.

On the tour I have workshops all over the world was happy to stop and show me what they were doing, eager with their flawless finish ("The reason why every show, what will impress them," Alfandary said: "This is because they make it perfect "), if there is a precise cut shoe upper leather, trim of the sole, which means scratching a millimeter, the skin around the insole, a hand finished, hammering tiny holes in soft suede make top a pattern , hand sewing the label Louis Vuitton in the insole (Stefania, another craftsman, son of a needle and label mesh before gluing the end of the wire and pressing buffer strip over so that it can not have the slightest bump to discomfort) screw the heel of the shoe, with a padlock on the back of a pair Oh really! Shoes with high heels (named because the Marc Jacobs response to most things is "Oh, really?) Or pack the shoe made from recycled soft fabric finish to ensure it is not damaged during shipping.

The workshop Fiesso is an autonomous unit, fully integrated. And four separate specialized workshops, there is the design room, the last room where rows of hard wood placed last but not least Miss Piggy for the premiere of The Muppets held (she has a foot, like almost shorter than wide) and a small room which is packed from floor to ceiling with materials - any skin leather and reptile you can imagine, treated more than you think possible. The material has a huge library card of the color on the wall marked S / S 14 - the beginning of the collection, which will be unveiled on the podium in September.

Perhaps the most interesting area is the quality of the laboratory, which is like a torture chamber for shoes. This clinical space has machinery to undergo the shoes through a series of rigorous tests. It is abrasion test of what happens when a cuff denim especially hard hit the back of the shoe, the friction test, which acts as artificial sweat the color of the shoe and a studied look Role sandpaper to see how the wear rubber soles - the equivalent of a car 40 meters (do not ask me what the average customer to get Louis Vuitton) drawn. There is also the heel-fatigue test, the hair pull a hammer on a heel than 14,000 times, and a machine-heel pull-off that the stress of a needle stuck between the cobblestones reproduced sees. And especially in consideration of the global market in which Louis Vuitton is the work climate chamber that resembles an industrial furnace. When I visited it was at 95 percent humidity and heat to 50C, the behavior of a shoe in Hong Kong. The same shoe withstand-20C in northern China, or the conditions of super-hot and dry in Dubai (although how long the average woman LV Dubai happens outside a climate-controlled environment is negligible).

No detail is too good or too invisible to be worth further, and it's hard to believe that it is the only place that all Louis Vuitton Shoes are shipped all over the world, from Tokyo to Sao Paulo are. Appears to slow the production line, and a sophisticated product which is produced in large quantities. And these volumes are steadily increasing. Last year Vuitton opened his first shoe store in memory at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, and has recently opened its first standalone shoe store shoe in the Dubai Mall Monday Selfridges area of ??London, the first Louis Vuitton Shoe Salon Britain in her gallery shoeshine phenomenal success, which has become a shrine to the shoe has possessed hosts, they are numerous. To celebrate, has a black calf leather Vuitton, silk satin and Swarovski studded shoes 14cm Platform produced in a limited edition of 24 pairs. They call it a "pump", but this seems too simple term for this high heel glamor, the whole crowd that was ready when I visited last month Fiesso.

Like all Vuitton Shoes, Selfridges, which is based on a design called Night Call for pre-fall collection that began its life as a drawing office Fabrizio Viti, director of the style of the shoe factory in LV Which is headquartered in Paris. Ready-to-wear shoes for women begin their journey here twice a year, when the country Marc Jacobs in Paris two days after showing his own collection in New York. After a few sessions, sketches of design studio Fiesso come and go with a little more than two weeks (Louis Vuitton is traditionally the last show of the season at the end of Paris Fashion Week) work moves upwards. Speed

Five days after the first meeting with ideas Jacobs Fiesso will begin on prototypes. Each shoe has its own charm carved wood last super-hard, and prototypes will be transported in both directions between Venice and Paris until approved before production. Just the plant to produce about 500 shoes - 12-15 species, so there is in the sizes 39-42 a shoe each model (including Kate Moss, which takes a 40) fit. It is not uncommon that the shoes before production chain, polished and polished by the team from Paola until they are perfect, the afternoon before the show. It is for private jets, known wear the shoes in Paris.

How can you expect that the price for a pair of shoes to pay Louis Vuitton is not negligible (often less than a purse), but after seeing the attention to detail and the care and expertise that goes into every process along the way regardless of their size, I might be tempted. (There is no need to not wait for the time of the sale, because Vuitton products are never discounted.) The Oh Really! will cost ￡ 450. And the next time I pass I'll be sure Selfridges Shoe Gallery to make a trip to the Louis Vuitton show, if only to take a close look at Stefania flawless seams and artistic brush Paola to. I just hope that for the next collection to tears.