At Fiesso d’Artico a town near Venice, well known till the 13th century for is savoir-faire in shoe-making, you enter at La manufacture de souliers of Louis Vuitton and took the main street (rue principale in french) to go to one of the four ateliers.

Each is indicated with a colour (see above) and a specific name: Taïga for men shoes, Nomade for loafers (women and men), Speedy for sneakers (women and men) and Alma for « La femme élégante ».

Two production lines make a 5 steps process: the cutting / the prototypes are mixed with the production as the designers are working with the artisans / the quality control, the finishing (‘make up’ of the shoes) and the packing.

There is three ways of cutting: with hand, with a pressing machine or with the computer (for better optimisation)

Demie-mesure
« Demi-mesure » is not « made to mesure ». It’s a service that allow each client (men only) to choose between three shapes (Fenice, Ducale and Rialto), three stitchings (Norwegian, Goodyear and Blake) and a large choice of skins to create his own pair of souliers. The result is a choice between 3500 combinations!

Wait about 12 weeks for a basic model to 16 weeks for a more complicated one like little boots. The price ranging from 2000 to 8500 euros and as the colour (« the make up », the art of patina) is handmade (see below) you’ll be sure that your pair will be unique!

The demi-mesure service is only available in eight locations for now, Milan was first, then came Sydney, Tokyo, Miami, London, Shangaï, Monaco and Munich last week.

Since 2001, when it has been established, La manufacture de souliers combine the excellence in craftmanship and cutting-edge technology, the best of France and Italy.

An artisan making a Norwegian stitch

After and before sole’s patina

The art of patina by two artisans or call it the « make-up of the shoes », give a unique result to the souliers, that’s also the beauty of the product !

Voila !