Alessandro Berluti was born in Senigallia, a little village in the Marche region on Italy’s Adriatic coast. He broke from his family's farming tradition to become a barrelmaker, and passed down a love of wood to his son Torello, who would later make the name Berluti famous in the Paris of the interwar years. An accomplished craftsman, Alessandro Berluti inspired his son's design of a shoe fashioned from a single piece of leather, without any visible seams – a clean-lined, comfortable and distinguished-looking lace-up. This shoe epitomized the fusion of Italian workmanship with Parisian creativity, and he named it Alessandro.

In 1895, Torello Berluti was born in Italy (like everyone in his family). His native town of Fossombrone was teeming with artisan workshops known as botteghe, and that’s where he learned his trade until the First World War took him to fight in France alongside the Italian army. In 1929 he set up his own business in Paris, opening a first boutique at 9 Rue de Mont-Thabor, right by the prestigious Place Vendôme. He was a brilliant lastmaker and leather cutter, cleverly capturing the spirit of the era to fashion both dainty women’s shoes and remarkably elegant footwear for men.

In the 1940s Torello turned the Maison’s focus exclusively to the masculine sphere, revealing a prodigious talent for designing men’s footwear. He began training up his son Talbinio from the age of 15, in a bid to pass on his skills. He also taught cutting at the Italian School of Shoemaking in Paris, and served on numerous judging panels. Having built solid friendships in his field – and famously enjoying a hearty appetite – Torello liked to share the pleasures of fine dining with the Maison’s clientele.

Talbinio Berluti was born in 1923, in Italy (like his father Torello and his grandfather Alessandro), but grew up in Paris, with a perfect command of the French language and culture. An architectural training helped develop his elegant drawing style, which he later applied to both footwear and furniture. He's credited with inventing the club chair for the “shoe ring”, which he designed to offer clients an optimal seating position during fittings.

In 1959, Talbinio Berluti revolutionized shoe retail by introducing off-the-shelf footwear that was elegant, comfortable and affordable all at once. As well as pioneering the art of patina that Olga Berluti would go on to perfect, Talbinio was an expert judge of leather, buying and cutting skins himself. His designs appealed to high-profile clients, from François Truffaut to Robert “Bobby” Shriver, who became a close friend. Under his influence, the Maison embraced modernity while remaining true to the shoemaker’s art.

Olga Squerri (who later took the name Berluti) was a daughter and granddaughter to shoemakers. She started working at the Paris store in 1959, when she was 20, learning her craft from Torello and Talbinio. She was an amazing saleswoman – no one could resist her sales pitch, whether a head of state, a surgeon, or an actor. Within the Maison’s masculine environment, she made colour her signature, elevating the patina to an art form and working leather as if it were human skin, with tattoos, incisions, braiding – even burn marks. Olga surrounded herself with artists, helping design award-winning costumes for leading filmmakers. Her creations always tell a meaningful story, like the perforated shoes of the Lasso collection, for instance, or her iconic Trois Nuits bag.

In 2011 Berluti entrusted menswear expert and long-standing client Alessandro Sartori with launching the Maison’s first ready-to-wear line. The creative director swiftly imposed his vision: a strong look with footwear serving as a constant reference point within the overall silhouette. Each new collection expanded the range of essentials: a softly aged calfskin jacket, elevated denim pieces, and perfectly tailored suits brought together Berluti’s shoemaking expertise with fine materials like cashmere, mohair, and alpaca. In 2014 Alessandro Sartori caused a stir with the launch of the Playtime sneaker – a bold juxtaposition of sportswear codes with the remarkable elegance of Berluti dressing.

Born in Colombia, globetrotter Haider Ackerman took the helm as Berluti’s creative director in 2016. This master of nuance fit seamlessly within the line of creative minds who have shaped the Maison’s history. Like Talbinio, he envisioned a man’s wardrobe as an overarching whole, and, like Olga, he defied convention by making colour central to his designs. Pastel biker jackets, bronze-green leather coats – he explored unexpected harmonies, coordinated clothes with accessories, and showcased fine materials. His precision tailoring was worn with utter nonchalance, accessorized with a silk scarf tied at the waist and snakeskin rancher boots. He infused the Berluti style with a new freedom – even if it was meticulously calibrated to the nearest millimetre.

With over a century of shoemaking savoir-faire, 70 years of tailoring know-how, and over a decade of menswear collections to its name, Berluti’s studio team renders a distinctive design narrative infused with the Maison’s rich heritage. Each season unveils a new facet of the Berluti man’s remarkable allure, shaped by eclectic tastes and uncompromising standards. Our recent Mont-Thabor line, for instance, pushes the art of the patina to its zenith with a sweeping palette of shades. Studio Berluti now marches to the creative beat of its own drum, reinventing icons like the storied Forestière jacket, exploring exceptional materials in combination with new colour harmonies, and developing pieces that are as distinctive as they are beautiful.