A Journey in Craft: tracing Berluti’s origins with Lee Jun-ho

To go back to the source, Lee Jun-ho first travels to Italy and visits the Manifattura in Ferrara. There, he discovers the savoir-faire that defines the Maison’s very essence. Artisans here practice their crafts with utter mastery, using skills honed over decades to achieve absolute precision. In this peaceful setting, Lee watches the making of an iconic shoe, the Alessandro, fashioned from a single piece of leather. It’s a labour of painstaking precision, born of the artisans’ silent rigour.

Next, he witnesses the ritual of the patina, Berluti’s signature. It’s a slow, almost meditative process of gradually building up layers, rubbing in coat after coat of colour until the leather’s unique depth shines through. Each finished piece bears its own singular character.

In the second stage of the journey, Lee moves on to Venice, where the focus is no longer on time-honed skills but on time itself. The very nature of La Serenissima echoes what he just saw. Here, water polishes stone, light transforms colours, and surfaces take on a weathered patina over time. Nothing remains unchanged, everything’s always shifting. 

What our artisans fashion by hand in the workshop, Venice also creates, at its own scale, through the passage of time. This city seems to speak the same language as our Venezia leather, with its rich gleam and nuanced colours; both speak of slowness, transformation and finesse.