It is hard to overstate the impact of French designer Roger Vivier on modern women’s fashion. He is credited with popularising the stiletto after he came up with the idea to insert a steel rod in the heel (previous versions used wood, which was prone to snapping).
For that, women the world over may love him, or hate him, but it is just one example of the inventive constructions and creative embellishments for which Vivier, who died in 1998, was famed.His shoes have been worn by everyone from American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to French film legend Catherine Deneuve to Aussie A-list celebrity Cate Blanchett. The Queen wore custom Vivier heels for her coronation in 1953.
In 2006, Diego Della Valle, president and CEO of Tod’s, acquired and relaunched Roger Vivier, and in 2014, Camilla Schiavone was appointed general manager of the brand. Previously general manager of Elsa Schiaparelli (Italy’s Chanel), Schiavone took the helm with the aim of bringing the storied brand to the world’s biggest cities.
This month, Australia’s first Roger Vivier store opened in Sydney’s Pitt Street Westfield shopping centre.
Here, Schiavone reveals the inspiration behind the iconic store design and why she doesn’t waste too much time worrying about retail crises.
Inside Retail Weekly: Why did you decide to open your first boutique in Australia?
Camilla Schiavone: When I began at Roger Vivier five years ago, the idea was to have one boutique in all the biggest cities in the world. One of the first things I said when I arrived was, ‘We need to be in Australia. We need to open something in Sydney.’ A little time passed [before we could open the store], because I had to open something in Korea, and Berlin and Madrid.
We are now at 55 boutiques in the world, so in fact, we are very exclusive and rare. If you can imagine, we have one boutique in Italy, in Milan, we have one boutique in France, in Paris, and so on. I want to have the most exclusive distribution, so that was the logic.
IRW: How does the look and feel of the Sydney store compare to Roger Vivier’s other stores around the world?
CS: The store design began a long time ago with the idea [of recreating] the house of Monsieur Roger Vivier. From the beginning, all the stores are like this. [The first Roger Vivier boutique was opened in Paris in 1937.] This one in Sydney is absolutely like the others, with vintage and antique and modern things. We’ve had this mix in our shops from the beginning. We’re very recognisable. We’re like a real house where you can sit down and be served by people in a unique interior design, capturing elegance in the French way.
There is always an antique mirror like in the 18th century, there is always an antique commode, and there are vintage shelves, what we call a library, where we put shoes and bags. And every time, we have a piece from Hervé van der Straeten, a modern guy who does modern furniture. He’s very famous. And if there is a place to put paintings, we always have modern paintings. For example, in Paris, we have Braque, and in many cases, we have Roger Vivier collages.
IRW: It’s interesting that the first boutique was designed to look like Roger Vivier’s own home. We see some retailers like Tory Burch doing that today. I understand Roger Vivier also invented some of the high-heel designs we still see today?
CS: What people need to know is that Roger Vivier was born in Paris and he studied culture and Beaux Arts, and when he finished, he began to do shoes and then hats in New York City during World War II. This guy created shoes like a sculpture, so every time he invented a heel, the stiletto heel, the comma heel and many of these types … he said that the shoe was the attitude of the woman, the way she walks and stands alone. This was for him a very important thing, and the real explanation of all these types of shoes and heels he has done.
IRW: And the store design was meant to convey that?
CS: From a retail point of view, what is important is the service we give to the people who come into our shop. It must be a comfortable moment and I would say a graceful moment. You have time to see all the shoes and everything we can offer you. We also do a special service if you are getting married, for example, and want special shoes in a special colour with a special buckle, we can do that for you. In Milan, Paris and New York, we have a special room where you have very limited edition products, made to order and things like this.
We offer everything on e-commerce, but the coolness you have in a shop you cannot find in another place. Perhaps what I’m saying is
not very modern, but in this time of running around everywhere, it’s sort of a cocooning moment in the shop.
IRW: Whenever a designer comes up with a style that is very popular, the copycats are not far behind. Is that something Roger Vivier has had to deal with over the years? Is it worse now because production cycles are so quick?
CS: Honestly, I think it has always been this way, but now it is much more quick than before because of digital. But before, it also took a little longer to become a success; now it’s very quick. For example, I can tell you now because it’s official, in less than five years, we
more than doubled our turnover.
It’s really a question of being – and honestly this is what we try to be – rare. I think we succeed in being rare. When you have Roger Vivier shoes, you are part of a circle, part of club. Some people know, and they recognise your shoes, but some people don’t. It doesn’t matter if everybody knows us, because some people do and they know the story of [Roger Vivier designing shoes for] the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. You have Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly and Cate Blanchett, Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman wearing Roger Vivier. It’s this type of club.
IRW: Are these women an indication of who your customer is, or are you going after younger customers?
CS: Like everybody, we have young consumers. All the brands are like this today because it’s a market thing. In China, it’s very young.
In Europe and America, it’s really like everyone else.
IRW: How did you manage to double your turnover in less than five years?
CS: We chose very well where we wanted to open shops and were very careful with what we did with influencers. It’s been 16 years since Roger Vivier was relaunched by Monsieur Della Valle [president and CEO of Tod’s], and we have now done the fourth book on the history of the brand and people who like the brand and things like this to show everyone the archive.
You know, Roger Vivier was the only designer to get a sort of shop-in-shop in the Dior house. The shoes say Roger Vivier for Christian Dior. He was the only one who had this privilege. He did this for 10 years and then he did his own brand. He was really an incredible guy, and what we want to do is keep this creativity.
You’ll see in our collection, we have the ballerina, we have the d’Orsay, we have the Belle Vivier, for example, and then at the end of the collection, we have shoes with embroidery, shoes with feathers, with a sort of incredible handmade quality, shoes that are very limited edition like before. This quality is still inside the brand but always with a special twist. Elegance is very important, but always with something fun, something joyful, something colourful. Roger Vivier is always the mixture of these two things: refined, but with a twist. Bruno [Frisoni, creative director from 2002-18] has done an incredible job for many years, and now Gherardo Felloni is designing the collection. He knows the archive and he knows it very very well.
My dream would be to bring the exhibition we did in Paris in 2014 with all the shoes and everything to Australia, so people could see that we can do archive but in a modern way.
IRW: Speaking of modern, does Roger Vivier embrace new methods of marketing, like working with influencers?CS: We have a brand ambassador, Ines de la Fressange, and we have many friends of the house and many people who want to wear Roger Vivier during the Oscars, or Cannes. We have people who have loved the house for many years, an example could be Olivia Palermo. Two or three years ago, we did a very funny bag for Valentine’s Day, and Taylor Swift wore the bag in America. We don’t do advertising, so our job is really on PR, letting people know our history, our archive and how we work in a modern way.
What we try to do every season is have a collaboration with a young woman, an actress or not, it doesn’t matter, but we would like to have a certain character profile. In the last years we’ve [worked with] Miroslava Duma, Jeanne Damas and Camille Seydoux for Roger Vivier, a capsule collection, and then Sofia Sanchez de Betak and now we are working with Poppy Delivingne. We have a
person, a character, who is not necessarily French, but has a style they’re working, a special look. She can do a capsule, she can do a
catalogue, every time we work with her in a special way.
IRW: What about e-commerce?
CS: We will have a new site in February with a new e-commerce base and services that are what I would call classical omnichannel.
IRW: What do you mean when you say classical omnichannel?
CS: Let’s say I’m looking at shoes on the phone, and then I go to bed, and then I take my PC and buy them
from my bed in Sydney and they’re delivered to my house in Paris, and want to give it back in New York …
something like this.
IRW: Was it always your goal to work in luxury?
CS: I began working in distribution, then for Levi Strauss and later cosmetics. Before it was mass market and then luxury. To be honest, my ambition was to be a general manager – it could have been luxury or not.
IRW: There is a sense that the retail industry is facing a really challenging time right now. Do you agree with that, or do you think it’s not actually that bad?
CS: Honestly, in my career, i’ve had more crisis years than developing years. Every time, it was for a different reason. There
was war in Israel, then a petrol crisis, then the financial crisis. I think it’s more that people change, the way we buy changes and what
we want from a shop is different. It’s more a question of what we can offer to the client, than whether there is a crisis. I think we can
find ways in retail to be more nice, comfortable, graceful … to give people what they would like now. The crisis will pass, but we need to offer something different to the clientele, that’s all. You can be mass market or luxury, but whatever you do, you need to give people
something different to what they can get on the phone.
IRW: What has been your experience of the path to upper management?
CS: Honestly, I worked very hard to be where I am. I think men and women both arrive at this level who work very much.
Sometimes I say, I had the chance to be at the right place at the right moment, but every time I got to the place, I worked
really hard. I’m very organised, but the reality is you can be a man or woman and work very much on work-life balance.
I think [equal representation] will arrive everywhere little by little, or by law, or because more and more women are
in positions, and you will reach where you want to go. It takes a little, but it will happen. Many women have been
nominated as GMs at some big French fashion groups and in America.
I can tell you that I began to work with my communications director in February. She was pregnant and then she had twins, and now she has come back and it’s no problem. I’m pleased she came to work with us, and I’m pleased she could have children and come back. You’ll have this in all the companies. I think everybody can find a balance, although honestly, when I was young, I really worked very much.
