We cannot overlook the work of one of the most significant and under-researched footwear designers of the 20th century, André Perugia. A pioneering Italian-French shoe designer, André Perugia (1893-1977) is known for his architecturally innovative and technically masterful footwear designs. From his first boutique in Nice in the early 1920s, he revolutionized luxury footwear, creating shoes for fashion houses like Dior and Schiaparelli, as well as for celebrity clients including Josephine Baker, Mistinguette, and Princess Lillian of Belgium. His work is preserved in major museum collections worldwide.
As much as he was a designer, he was an engineer, an architect, an inventor. In 1940, he patented the shankless heel (the shank is the middle part that connects the sole and heel); Harper’s Bazaar described this design as “beautiful, bizarre, and wonderfully comfortable.” He dreamed up shoes with interchangeable heels or no heels at all. He liked to explore what he could take away from a shoe, and still have it be this very elegant statement, seeing the shoes as sculpture. Very adventurous, he was inspired to try different materials, different shapes and challenge the very idea of what a shoe can be.
Perugia was the first to use a steel heel (previously they were made from wood or stacked leather), creating the blade heel in 1951. During the Second World War, steel technology grew leaps and bounds and Perugia, himself a veteran, harnessed this for his craft. It’s a feat of engineering. Being steel, it could be super thin, but it supports the weight of a wearer. This step allowed for the innovation of the stiletto.
Perugia was the first to use a steel heel (previously they were made from wood or stacked leather), creating the blade heel in 1951. During the Second World War, steel technology grew leaps and bounds and Perugia, himself a veteran, harnessed this for his craft. It’s a feat of engineering. Being steel, it could be super thin, but it supports the weight of a wearer. This step allowed for the innovation of the stiletto.
So why do so few people know his name? A lot of his contemporaries, like Ferragamo and Vivier, whose brands live on, either were continued in the family line or they were revived, so they have that name recognition. But Perugia, when he died in 1977, the name went with him. It wasn't until the late ‘90s and early 2000s when shoe designers enter pop culture and become famous - The Jimmy Choos and the Manolo Blahniks and Christian Louboutins - that people really gave thought to designers. With nobody to continue his work, Perugia had faded into history by then. However with more study and interest in the evolution of shoe design, research shows us what a pivotal figure Perugia was in the evolution of modern footwear. We can appreciate his contributions now in a new perspective.
You can discover more and see some of his surviving work on display at the Bata Shoe Museum, in Toronto.
