Roger Vivier stages the best presentations in the fashion world and today in Paris was no exception.
Creative director Gherardo Felloni welcomed guests to Sensorama, a multi-floor, multisensory, multimedia footwear extravaganza ranging over six rooms and engaging sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, plus that all-important je ne sais quoi, aka the mystic sixth sense.
“For me, the senses are the key for creativity,” Felloni told FN. “When you see, when you hear or when you taste, something in your brain clicks and that is the key to inspiration.”
So without further ado, let FN be your guide to a sensory journey through the presentation’s six magical spaces.
Sight
Guests entered to see an artist painting her own clothing — not to mention the Love Vivier pumps she was wearing — in fluorescent colors that popped under the ultraviolet lighting. Fashion’s favorite illustrator, Elena Ciuprina, was also in situ, live-sketching the event.
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Sound
Visitors walked into a recording studio where an ASMR session, evoking a sensory response like a frisson, was in full swing with its lingerie-clad protagonist popping Bubble Wrap and whispering suggestively into a mic — a perfect way to introduce Vivier’s new Strass Buckle slippers in sumptuous velvet and Belle Vivier boots in kinky black patent leather.
Smell
The Love Vivier pumps, in their new fall ’20 slingback iteration and colors ranging from Twin Peaks Pine to Innocent Violet, were encased beneath bell jars scented with corresponding odors. Consider it olfactory gold.
Taste
Centered around a frothy Marie Antoinette-inspired mega cake festooned with pink and white macaroons were limited-edition versions of the house’s Strass Buckle Caba bags, dripping in diamonds and pearls and definitely looking good enough to eat.
Touch
Two models dressed in poufy Marie Antoinette-style gowns and wearing giant cat masks (Felloni is a fan of the eponymous musical) cavorted in a furry boudoir, covered floor to ceiling in pink shag carpeting.
Sixth Sense
A fortune-teller, complete with crystal ball, was flanked by a footwear phalanx of 12 brand-new Cuissard boots. Whether fringed, feathered or meticulously hand-embroidered, these were definitely the stars of the show.
“It’s a silhouette that means so much to us,” revealed Felloni of his new style. “It is a reference from the archive in homage to Roger Vivier. He invented the Cuissard boot for Brigitte Bardot in the ‘60s.”
Bardot was the house founder’s muse, who also inspired the signature Belle Vivier pump.
When current Vivier muse, campaign star Christina Ricci, arrived, she gamely climbed on top of the giant cake and proceeded to sing “Happy Birthday” to Felloni, an homage to that iconic moment between Marilyn Monroe and President Kennedy. It wasn’t actually his birthday, but one has to seize the moment, right?
And finally, the multimedia element. The brand created six Instagram filters, one to accompany each sense. Download them from @rogervivier. You’re welcome.
