Shoe Designer Renè Caovilla, Celebrating 50 Years of the Cleopatra Sandal, Names His Favorite Celebrity Client
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“These boots are made for walkin’, and that’s just what they’ll do. One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you,” sang Nancy Sinatra in one of her famous songs, signifying how much a shoe can lift the spirit of a woman with a broken heart.
There are few other accessories that can communicate a woman’s identity like shoes. And one of the masters of their design is Maison René Caovilla (available online at Neiman Marcus and Net-A-Porter), which over its nearly nine-decade history has designed shoes that are true works of art and excellence. For creating his shoe empire, its founder, René Fernando Caovilla, was bestowed the title Emeritus Cavaliere del Lavoro — the Order of Merit for Labor — by former president of Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
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The red-carpet desirability of Caovilla’s world-famous sandals has made its way to Hollywood. A host of celebrities have swayed on the red carpets of major world festivals wearing these little masterpieces, born on the outskirts of the lagoon city of Venice. Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Emma Watson, Zendaya, Rihanna and Bella Hadid are some of the celebrities won over by their appeal.
In the 50th anniversary year of René Caovilla’s most iconic model — the Cleopatra, featuring the famous coiled snake design on the ankle — the Venetian maison offers an evolution of the design. With a poetic name inspired by the Egyptian queen, meant to recall the snake that is the symbol of the maison and Cleopatra, the new silk-satin model comes in both variations of nude tones and in an explosion of ultra pop colors, all featuring a tapered spool heel, a semi-square toe and the signature stardust sole. The Spring Summer 2024 collection, presented during the just-concluded Milan Fashion Week, in addition to new shapes and textures, also features an original chromed and lacquered sculpture wedge in gold, silver and black with a tempered steel spring.
The house has also mounted an exhibition titled The Art Of Dreams: Cleo, A Style Icon for 50 Years, held to celebrate the Italian brand’s most well-known shoe and spotlighting unique archival pieces designed by René Fernando Caovilla starting in 1973. Two years later after its creation, the sandal was being exhibited at MoMA in New York, a milestone that made it an icon of modern art. “Cleo is a sandal characterized by the snake, a thin line made like a spring that screws around the ankle, a sinuous thread of leather edged with rhinestones,” says Cavalier Caovilla, founder and still creative director at 85 years old. He chatted with THR Roma about his design inspirations, his favorite celebrity “Cinderella,” how Valentino Garavani helped to kick-start his collaboration with luxury fashion houses and more.
Where did you get your inspiration from?
I conceived it thinking of a magnificent gold bracelet I had seen at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. One of those ancient Roman bracelets. A snake twisting around a wrist, from the House of the Faun in Pompeii. It occurred to me to make a spiral. The problem was how to keep the elasticity. I broke an alarm clock to see how the spring worked: by loosening it, it wouldn’t coil anymore. So we tried to give the material the right firing. So that it wouldn’t unscrew. And here is the shoe.
Has your interest in art helped you in your work?
Art interests me to enhance the female image. We do this work because we have art in our blood. Something that allows us to dream. And it is the only thing that has a price.
From the founding of your company to today, what has changed in the footwear world?
From the first Rita model to the iconic Cleo sandal, the history of the Maison rests solidly on three core values: passion, creativity and excellence. The know-how of tradition thus represents the soul of the company, made up of true artisans, lovers of shoes and women. But craftsmanship needs to constantly feed on new sap, and only through constant research and the integration of new technologies can manual art evolve and keep up with the times. From the complementary union of innovation and centuries-old tradition comes footwear that combines beauty, quality and avant-garde.
Coco Chanel declared, “A woman with beautiful shoes is never ugly!” Is this still the case?
Whether they are 12-inch heeled pumps or satin ballet flats, padded ankle boots or jeweled sandals does not matter. It is enough to recognize that shoes are not an accessory, but an object with a strong social value that transcends itself by becoming a fetish, a symbol, a statement of intent and, increasingly, a cult object.
Is having good shoes essential?
Very, very, very much. I never look at women from the top down, but always from the bottom up. From the shoes I can infer the manners, elegance, quickness and, of course, the way the person walks.
Tell us about your meeting with Valentino and your long collaboration?
When I started my relationship with luxury brands, the first one I met was Valentino Garavani. I was the one who sought him out. I wrote to him: you make dreamy clothes, I think I have shoes that might fit. A relationship was born that lasted 30 years, so much so that Valentino himself chose me as the accessories designer for his haute couture line, resulting in cult objects and fetish creations sealed with the Valentino by René Caovilla emblem.
Then came Dior, Chanel and Galliano: What memories do you have?
Formidable years, marked by inexhaustible creative energy, overwhelming friendships, and a desire to experiment. Then also began the collaboration, which lasted several years, with another legendary fashion house, that of Christian Dior, with John Galliano, with whom dreamy and imaginative creations were made for the Parisian catwalks. It was then the turn of Chanel and contact with the stylistic genius of Karl Lagerfeld.
Which famous feet have given you the most satisfaction?
My creations over the years have been loved by Nancy Reagan to Lady Di. Today they tread the world’s major red carpets on the feet of stars like Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts and Charlize Theron.
But which foot affected you the most? Who is your Cinderella?
Sharon Stone. She has been my favorite woman from the beginning and always will be. In my opinion she is the sexiest woman in the world. She expresses sex from the tip of her hair to the soles of her feet. It’s in her blood. She came to visit us in the factory, I also had her in Venice. We still have a very good relationship.
The sexiest feet on the planet, then?
It wasn’t just the feet! It was the whole person. Of course, embellishing her foot with my snake became even more interesting. I always put a 10 or sometimes 11 heel on her. If you put a high heel on a woman you immediately enhance her by making her express all her femininity. Stone represents the woman who most enhances what I was interested in: sex appeal. I’ve never seen a woman like that. I really haven’t.
When did you decide to focus only on your brand?
2004 was the year of the opening of the first René Caovilla single-brand boutique in Milan, followed in the following years by Paris, Venice, London and Dubai. But whether I was in London, Paris, New York or Tokyo, I always knew who I was, the heir to the historical tradition of great Venetian craftsmanship. There has always been Venice with its wonders in my eyes, in my heart, in my hands.
How important are shoes on the red carpet?
The red carpet fuels a dream, both for those who live it and for those who follow it from afar, and the shoe itself represents an object of desire, a René Caovilla shoe represents the dream of being able to wear it, perhaps the shoe of fairy tales, the one that suddenly transforms reality. This is really the magnetism that accompanies my shoes and their soles covered in stardust.
The shoes you wear, on the other hand, how should they be?
They have to be soft and they have to be made with steel on leather like Hermès makes beautiful shoes.
Why have you never done a men’s line?
Simply because the male world has never interested me in anything.
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