Evening pumps

Roger Vivier|Delman

1992–93 · silk, plastic · Costume Institute

Roger Vivier is one of the most revered shoe designers of the 20th century. Beginning his career in the late 1920s, Vivier designed for many of the top manufacturers of Europe and the United States, including Pinet, Bally, Rayne, Salamander, and Delman before rising to the height of fame for his designs for Christian Dior from 1953 to 1963. He continued to design into the 1990s both under his own label and for numerous couture designers, including Saint Laurent, Grès, Ungaro, and Balmain. Vivier is most noted for his innovative toe and heel shapes, the supreme elegance and harmony of his designs, his sometimes subtle but inventive and highly refined details, and for his conception of footwear as integral to fashion. In 1992, Roger Vivier renewed his relationship with Delman, Inc. As fashion turned from the ultra-luxurious aesthetic of the 1980s to a more refined elegance, it was an ideal juncture for Vivier to revisit many of his iconic features and his distinctive aesthetic at the culmination of his career.

Artist

Roger Vivier|Delman

Date

1992–93

Medium

silk, plastic

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Stanley and Murray Silverstein, Nina Footwear, 1993