Roger Vivier shoe collection at The Bata Shoe Museum

It’s the shoe that our fashion heroine and Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester (Blair Waldorf ) gave to her French Prince Louis: “It’s Vivier, it’s worth a helluva lot more than a glass slipper.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, Miss Waldorf. And we all know how that ended (*Spoiler Alert!)

It’s a romantic (and cheesy) Cinderella gesture but we get the point—that’s one special shoe. So it’s not without immense excitement (read: tear-inducing joy) that shoe fanatics welcomed the Roger Vivier collection to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto weeks ago. Roger Vivier  gained notoriety as a designer for Christian Dior in the 1950s and worked for the design house long after Dior’s death. The Vivier exhibit entitled, Process to Perfection ( May 9, 2012-April 7, 2013) highlights never-before-seen sketches and drawings of Vivier’s shoe design process and the creations that were a result of his painstaking art. Vivier died at age 90 in 1998 and continues to be an iconic and inspirational shoe designer to many fashion greats from Lanvin to Louboutin. Famous shoe profiles and wearers include the pilgrim buckle shoe—a favourite of Catherine Deneuve, and the thigh-high boot that Bridget Bardot loved to wear.

“To wear dreams on one’s feet is to begin to give a reality to one’s dreams.” —Roger Vivier

*photos: Glynnis Mapp, FashionTK.com

Related posts: