Walking into the Berluti presentation this season, it was impossible not to invoke the endlessly meme’d, poetically viral words of one Dominique Jackson: “Get the shoes baby, get the shoes.” For those of you who are not perpetually online, the message from the storied leather goods house was so: It starts and ends with the shoes.
A receiving hallway at the sprawling Fondation Simone et Cino Del Duca was decked with a wooden log platform displaying the latest and greatest Berluti footwear, all, this time, fashioned in the company’s signature burnished patina in four distinct colors: deep mineral blue, vermilion orange, cedar brown, and mossy green. Classics like the Andy and the Alessandro were displayed alongside newer, more contemporary counterparts such as the famed Fast Track sneaker. In the main hall was the ready-to-wear, each delivery built around a color and, you guessed it, a shoe.
There was a quite formal navy in the aforementioned classics paired with dressier tailoring, a couple of everyday neutrals where the standout was an uncomplicated suit fashioned in a machine knit, and a burnt orange weekender with a fabulously ingenious sandal (a bit of uncharted territory still for Berluti), and easy clothes to match. A fourth section offered some beach-side, summer-ready ecru and beige hemps and linens paired with an unstructured slipper, which also broke new ground for Berluti, as it seemed to address the current ballet flat craze in menswear.
But the big headline this season is Berluti’s participation as the official outfitter of the French Olympics national team for the opening ceremony, a first for a luxury house in France (this last part was made very clear by the Berluti team). A room at the foundation was dedicated to displaying the Berluti uniforms and, of course, their accompanying footwear. The idea, explained a representative of the brand, was to lend an air of French sophistication to the athletes and their corresponding teams—a total of 1,500 people, who are all being fit and outfitted this week. That much was evident in the snazzy tricolor shawl lapels of the tailoring.
But more than the uniforms themselves, it’s the effect of this new athletic mindset applied to the house’s intrinsic formality that made you look up from the footwear and focus on the season’s ready-to-wear. One key piece was an unbelievably light blouson jacket cut in the most buttery of suedes. Think of it as the leather equivalent to those tactical nylon jackets worn by men who like the pragmatism of activewear but not the actual activity. And proof that despite its focus on footwear, Berluti has some great tricks up its sleeve (or sock, as the case may be) in the clothing department.