Born in 1907, Roger Vivier, known as the Fabergé of footwear, created shoes that looked like works of art. In 1924 he began studying sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a school he abandoned two years later to study the art of shoemaking and begin an apprenticeship. In 1937, Roger Vivier opened his first boutique on Rue Royale in Paris, dubbed "the Fragonard of shoes". High heels are his specialty – he is the father of the Aiguille stiletto, introduced in 1954, while the sinuous Virgule pump has been considered the statement piece of his eponymous label since 1963.
