Step into John Fluevog’s world
Vancouver-based designer celebrates 45 years of doing ‘what felt right’
John Fluevog looks like a rock star. Tall, with silver hair and matching soul patch, he is wearing a tapestry jacket worthy of Keith Richards purchased in a small tailor shop in Paris, accessorized by pointy-toed black shoes with golden tip and heel detailing, from his Streets of Gold collection.
But he’s not in show biz; he’s in shoe biz, celebrating 45 years of his Canadian indie shoe line. His devotees, called Fluevogers, are lined up at his Queen St. W. location, hoping for an audience.
There are 20 Fluevog stores all over the map: from Quebec City to Minneapolis, Minn., with two locations in Toronto — Queen St. W. and the Distillery District. Madonna, Scarlett Johansson and Whoopi Goldberg wear his shoes.
He has thrived, never mind survived, for almost a half century despite heavy-hitter competitors armed with flagrant gimmickry such as red soles (Louboutin) and no-heel platforms (Alexander McQueen).
“I don’t know why and I am thankful for it,” he says. “I never followed fashion; I’ve done what felt right.
"The shoes look cool; the shapes are great and interesting. I don’t reference a certain era or time — you just pull them out of the closet. They were never in style so they are never out of style.”
Wikipedia describes his footwear as “art deco inspired.”
“On that day,” he laughs. “Nobody should be pigeonholed. I do different things as eras come and go.”
Fluevog was born and raised in Vancouver, where he still lives. In 1970, he joined forces with Peter Fox to start a shoe store in Vancouver called Fox and Fluevog. After 10 years, they split amicably and Fluevog opened his own shop.
“Peter Fox was 15 years my senior and he retired,” he says. “I have no design background. I barely graduated from high school. I’m dyslexic.”
Fluevog and Fox met when they were both working in a Vancouver shoe store in which Fox was the manager.
It wasn’t that Fluevog was obsessed with footwear, it was just one of his jobs.
“One day Peter Fox said ‘I am thinking of going out on my own. Do you want to work for me? Do you think your father would lend me $13,000?’
“My dad said, ‘Only if you make my son partner,’ ” recalls Fluevog, who was living in a hippie commune in Palo Alto, Calif., before he met Fox. “I figured, I’m 21, OK.”
He attributes the biggest evolution in footwear to “the androgynous idea in the ’90s.”
“There is not such a division between men’s and women’s shoes anymore.
"It is now OK for women to wear a man’s shoe and a man to wear a woman’s. I started in the ’70s when
“Nobody should be pigeonholed. I do different things as eras come and go.” JOHN FLUEVOG
there was a funky vibe — I did patentleather over-the-knee boots in five colours for men. (Director Robert Altman bought a knee-high boot for himself while filming the movie McCabe & Mrs. Miller in 1971.) That’s the era I started in and I have all that energy in my head.”
As for the wide-footed who feel like Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters and can’t find a Fluevog to fit: “I try to make lasts and shapes that are fairly full,” he says. “I don’t make shoes for skinny minis or sky-high heels. I am not in the comfort business but I hope they are comfortable.”
He doesn’t have any favourite shoe designers.
“I try not to look at others too much,” he says. “I don’t search the Internet. Certain things at certain times hit me as good or right.
"My son Adrian runs the company and I do all the formational designs and send the design team all around the world to the factories.”
His shoes generally run from $250 to $300; the most expensive being $550 boots. So how can designers charge $2,000 for a pair of shoes?
“Because they ask for it,” he shrugs.