‘A Trip To Berluti’ is a small series I made back in 2016 when I used to live in London and frequented their West End shop. Like my latest Aubercy Store visit series, we will revisit my older posts, seeing shoes from years ago and touching up on my thoughts back then. When I lived in London, I had far more access to all of the great shoe places in Europe. And I traveled a lot more then. I often documented my time in shoe shops and this information has been lost in the depths of my blog. Therefore, I will begin to rewrite/revise them in the hopes of showing you how different things can become even in a short matter of a decade.
‘A Trip To Berluti’ starts here:
As you get older you learn a lot about yourself, your thoughts, and how you perceive the world. I used to have this love/hate relationship with Berluti. I would always say that they were too expensive although I always loved their design. Maybe that was a sort of small guy (me) versus the big guy (i.e. LVMH). But as I get older, run my business for longer, and start to think more about what they are trying to achieve than what I personally think of them, I have to say that I start to respect them more.
Berluti is not trying to be the best shoemaker to have ever lived and claims that they make the best shoes in the world with the best fiddleback, handlasted, and the likes. No, they specialize in patina, design (many things that no one else has ever done), and overall the making of good shoes (despite the price). And what they want to achieve (at least I think) is to be the king of the high-end designer world. That world is not the same as Gaziano & Gaziano, my brand J.FitzPatrick, Carmina, Septieme Largeur, Crockett & Jones, and the rest. Their world is more in line with Hermes, Gucci, Prada, Moschino, etc. So in effect, to compare is to be mistaken. Apples and oranges. You don’t compare a Ferrari to a Mercedes.
If I saved up $2000 to buy some shoes and it took me 6 months to save that money, then I wouldn’t be buying a pair of Berlutis. But if I was a multi-millionaire and spending $50K, then you can bet I would be in that shop buying 20 pairs without blinking. Because in the high-end designer world, they are among the best and I can say that with certainty. Because if I am that rich and have a collection of 200 pairs then it really doesn’t matter if the shoes are handwelted and made to perfection.
What matters is that they look good, fit well, and that I like them. Because if I have 200 pairs of shoes, one pair is only going to see daylight 2-7 times a year (if that) if I was really that rich, I might have the same pair for different houses in different countries. And that precisely is the type of client they are going for, not us shoe nerds online driveling over gemming issues on our welted shoes. So when I think of them as strictly being a business, well then I must say that they have done a fantastic job, and cannot knock them for that at all. Although it is hard not to when you are backed by the biggest fashion powerhouses in the world.
So I had a stroll through the shop on Conduit St the other day and saw many nice things, not all of which were the shoes. The clothing is impressive as well but even more so than the shoes, is completely out of my price range for treating myself. But no doubt, when I hit the big time, while I won’t be buying the shoes I will most certainly pick up something from the tailoring department!
It is fun to read my perspective from 9 years ago. Yet in my trip to Berluti and how I saw things then, I must say that it was pretty accurate to what I feel today. Although, sadly, I no longer see these super cool designs on their website and the prices have since gone up significantly more than during this time. But I do love to look back at this design that still had traces of influence from Olga Berluti. The pinched leather, although not to everyone’s liking, was something truly and uniquely Berluti. Same for the tattooing.
I will soon be in London again, and must pay a visit!
Learn more about Berluti here: https://www.berluti.com/en-gb/homepage/
—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob
Shop · Marketplace · J.FitzPatrick · Patreon
Thanks for sharing these lovely pictures Justin, great work indeed !
Great analysis Justin:-). So as a shoe nerd, don’t you want to own at least 1 pair of shoes from each Big & Small shoemaker (Vass, Corthay, Lobb,etc.) ? I do. So tell me if you have 1 choice for a loafer; the Lupin from Aubercy or Andy from Berluti or the cheaper (compared to the latter) Lincoln by Altan? Which one would you choose and why?
Thanks Justin, this was a very enjoyable read.
For me, I’ve had a parallel discovery. A trip to Paris in 2019 revealed that JM Weston had a fantastic level of service (they honestly wouldn’t let me compromise on a perfect fit), and that John Lobb has an interior connecting door to Hermes, and also offers great service. I bought shoes from both. I already knew from attending a trunk show that Corthay had too narrow a fit for for me. Berluti was also on my must see list, but I was very offput by their nightclub style front door physical security. Though I love the appearance of the Scritti line in particular, I decided that Berluti was a brand seeking the attention of billionaires and autocrats.
Thank you Stephen, I am glad that you enjoyed it! But yes, sadly they are not looking to sell to us ‘normal’ people. Oh well.