André Perugia
French shoe designer (1893 - 1977)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
André Perugia (31 December 1893 - 1977) was a French shoe designer regarded as one of the pioneers of twentieth-century footwear design. Active from the 1910s to the 1970s, he was known for technically innovative and sculptural shoes, and for collaborations with major couturiers such as Paul Poiret and Elsa Schiaparelli.[1][2]
Early life and career
Perugia was born in Nice, France in 1893 of Italian parentage. He trained in his father's workshop and at the age of 16, in 1909, he opened a shop in Paris where he sold handmade shoes. He worked with designers including Paul Poiret, I. Miller,[3] Charles Jourdan, Jacques Fath, Callot Soeurs and Hubert de Givenchy.
He wrote a book From Eve to Rita Hayworth in which he said that the way to unveil a woman's personality was to study her feet. Always eager to experiment with new materials, shapes, and textures, Perugia continued to create shoes of startling originality throughout a 50-year association with I. Miller and then with Charles Jourdan.[4]
