SHOE OF A CENTURY

You might not know the name René Caovilla, but you’ve certainly seen the designs. KIERAN HO visits the atelier to see how far the brand has come from its humble beginnings almost 100 years ago

IN THE WORLD of big-name, conglomerate-backed shoemakers, René Caovilla is a modest familyowned company known for its crystallised shoes. But don’t let that fool you – this historic shoemaker has made shoes for Chanel and Valentino, and has been worn innumerable times on the red carpet. Coiled around the ankles of women all over the world like a jewelled serpent, a René Caovilla creation is instantly recognisable. Adorning feet from the likes of Rihanna and the Hadid sisters, there’s something about these shoes that drive women crazy. Is it the shine factor? Or the way the shoes envelop the foot with their elegant lines? Or is it simply due to its proud heritage?

The story of René Caovilla and its spectacularly sparkly shoes goes all the way back to 1934, when Edoardo Caovilla

(René’s father) started creating shoes in

Fiesso d’Artico, a factory town 40 minutes from Venice. I’m not sure if the name of this town resonates with you or not, but if you’re an aficionado of luxury shoes, it should. Almost all of the world’s luxury shoes for women are made in Fiesso d’Artico, but it can be argued that Caovilla was one of the first to open his atelier there. Even if he wasn’t, the René Caovilla brand is definitely one of the oldest luxury shoemaking houses that still exist today.

I had the privilege of visiting the atelier, where the magic happens. The showroom is what you’d expect – airy, well-decorated, sophisticated and with lots of mirrors. But one thing about this room is not like the others. I’m with Edoardo Caovilla ( grandson of the owner of the same name); he presses a button on a remote control and tells me to look at the walls. At first, I wasn’t sure what he meant. The walls of the showroom seemed pretty solid, with the mouldings typical of most European interiors. But then, something started to move and right before my eyes, whole sections of the wall began sliding and retracting into themselves, like something straight out of a James Bond movie. There’s no Aston Martin waiting for me behind these secret walls, but there’s something even more impressive.

The walls of this hidden room are lined with rows upon rows of shoes from the archives of the Caovilla family – dating all the way back to the time when they made shoes for Valentino Garavani and Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. It’s also worth noting that René Caovilla made its shoes with a red sole back in the 1960s, long before Christian Louboutin, but since then it has changed to a glittered sole to align with the jewelled aesthetics.

From design to manufacture, and to placing the finished shoes into their signature red box, everything is done in-house. There’s

an immediate sense of family and heritage here. Each shoe is crafted by hand and no detail is spared, which means the average pair of shoes takes 48 hours from start to finish.

But there’s something about this production facility that sets it apart from a soulless factory – each artisan is tasked with one specialisation and because none of the work is outsourced, they’re free to take the materials home and work from there if they prefer. Wearers of René Caovilla can proudly know that their shoes have been made with love and care.

At present, René Caovilla produces a variety of styles including pumps, sandals, combat boots and sneakers. Regardless of the design, the sure-fire way to tell a pair of Caovillas apart from other shoemakers is by the almost haute-couture level of detail put into the shoes – and most certainly the amount of bling. I cannot emphasise enough how passionate (almost to an obsessive level) René Caovilla is with shiny things. There’s something that the workers call the “Crystal Room” and it’s exactly what you think it is – a room filled with stacks of boxes full of crystals in all shapes, colours and designs.

There are even some that Swarovski have made exclusively for Caovilla’s shoes. I briefly imagined that if there were ever an earthquake, this room would turn into a Scrooge McDuckdiving-into-a-pool-of-gold-coins situation.

It’s worth mentioning that although the brand does have a long history in shoemaking, it doesn’t feel old-fashioned at all. In fact, there’s a beautiful marriage of the old with the new, and no corners are cut. Much like a jeweller, the arrangements of crystals are done traditionally and placed by hand, one crystal at a time. Next, the design is digitised and sent to a state-of-the-art laser machine, marking indicators for where each crystal goes.

The staff at the Caovilla atelier strike the same balance. Some of them have been there mastering the craft and honing their skills for decades (which is why it’s not possible to imitate a pair of the brand’s shoes for less), while some staff are in their 20s and injecting their youthful energy into the brand to keep the heritage relevant in current times. They’ve even gone as far as developing a pump with a flexible sole that can be bent 180 degrees into itself. René Caovilla is truly an icon – with a jewelled past and a glimmering future.