SOLE PURPOSE

Reluctantly leaving the visual spectacles of the leather store, we move into the soles department. This is the only department where they require burly muscular men to work at whirring machines, stitching the soles of the shoes. We observe how the thick layers of welt and the sole are guided by the craftsmen’s hands through the stitching machine. Even the soles of Berluti’s shoes are not bought from suppliers—they are made in-house right here, and screed in a machine. “Eighty per cent of our body weight is on the heel, so we put a lot of emphasis on the comfort of the sole. In some Berluti models,