Museo: Museo della Calzatura di Villa Foscarini Rossi

Introduction - Entrance (Room 1)

The Footwear Museum is housed in the main villa of the 17th-century Villa Foscarini Rossi complex, on the banks of the Brenta River. It was commissioned by the Venetian nobleman Jacopo Foscarini as a holiday retreat and designed by the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi. Over the years, the property has passed through different hands, and each family has adapted the residence to their own needs and the tastes of their time. The current building is the result of the latest 19th-century renovations, among which the following immediately stand out: the elimination of the mezzanine floor to allow the ground floor to have the same height as the noble floor, the elimination of the external staircase, and the addition of the two symmetrical terraces. At the end of the 1980s, it was purchased by the footwear entrepreneur Luigino Rossi. In 1993, after a major restoration, the Villa and Foresteria were opened to the public, transformed respectively into the Rossimoda shoe factory's company museum and a conference center, which hosts prestigious events. The company's historical collection occupies approximately 700 square meters of the two floors of the main building and includes over 1350 models of luxury women's footwear, produced by the company since the early 1960s, in collaboration with about twenty of the most prestigious fashion houses on the international scene, including Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Fendi, Porsche Design, and Calvin Klein.

Stairwell (Room 2)

Since 2003, the Villa Foscarini Rossi complex has been owned by the LVMH group. The property is located in the heart of the Riviera del Brenta footwear district, which stretches along the old bed of the Brenta River, between the provinces of Padua and Venice, famous throughout the world for its production of luxury and designer women's footwear. The manufacturing tradition of this area boasts illustrious origins, dating back to the "Scola dei Calegheri", a brotherhood of shoemakers and cobblers, documented since 1268, which in the Serenissima Republic, had the task of satisfying wealthy and demanding clients such as the Venetian nobles, stimulating our workers to produce increasingly sophisticated and precious objects, for which they are still famous today.

Ancient and Ethnic Footwear (Room 3)

In the hall on the ground floor, you can also admire a collection of ancient and ethnic footwear, assembled by the founder over the years during his countless business trips. This space allows us to prepare our guests for the idea that footwear is not only an accessory, but also a language, with which each of us, without the need for words, can tell something about ourselves, our work environment, the society in which we live, and the social class to which we belong or aspire to belong. This function has always been performed by shoes (at all times) and everywhere (in every place), as widely evidenced by the objects that surround us in this space. One example is the moccasins worn by Native Americans, which, from the designs and colors of the beads with which they are decorated, tell us both the tribe of belonging and the social class or role occupied within it.

Room 4 (Marc by MJ, Vera Wang, Calvin Klein)

The next rooms, on the other hand, house the shoe factory's production. The criteria used for the exhibition highlights the contribution of each individual designer to the evolution of fashion in a specific period, which corresponds to the duration of the collaboration, and at the same time demonstrates the ability of the district's craftsmen to meet the needs of the most demanding designers. Another highlighted aspect is the geographical origin of the brand: American, English, and German fashion houses are displayed on the ground floor, while French, Italian, and Spanish ones are located on the first floor. This is because footwear is an accessory that must balance aesthetic and functional needs, and even the most rebellious artist is influenced by their territory of origin; the practicality of the Nordics that characterizes the ground floor is less evident on the first floor with the Mediterraneans, who are instead more inclined to dedicate greater attention to aesthetic aspects. This last reflection also enhances the choice of the container: the historical residence. The fruits of this land are the civilization of the Venetian villas and the footwear district, and certainly the sense of proportion, harmony, and a certain type of taste that characterize our historic buildings have influenced our way of producing, making it stand out from all the footwear districts scattered around the world for elegance and balance. Inside this room, you can admire the popular "mice" by Marc by MJ, produced since 2003 for several seasons with ever-new materials; the ceremonial models with which Vera Wang dresses high society in the United States (and beyond) on their wedding day; and the Calvin Klein footwear, produced during the 1990s, a period of great notoriety for the designer, who stood out as one of the pioneers of minimalism, as evidenced by the "essential and rigorous" pieces in the display cases.

Room 5 (Gothic Room)

This small jewel of "romantic" decoration was probably executed by the decorators of the Jappelli school, towards the end of the 1830s. The revival of the neo-Gothic style, which simulates the interior of a cathedral, mixed with classical reminiscences, with the niches housing some of the seven wise men mentioned by Plato and Plutarch, suggest that the function of this space was dedicated to a study or library.

Room 6 (Anne Klein, Andrea Pfister, Richard Tyler, Donna Karan)

The room of Anne Klein, an American designer who had her moment of glory around the 70s and 80s, welcomes all the creatives who, over time, have worked for her, taking up her baton: the fixation to find the right balance between comfort and design. Perhaps the "student" who best accomplished the task was Donna Karan: as a good New Yorker, dynamic and independent, she was able to create garments and accessories that are well suited to today's woman, who defends her autonomy, but does not want to give up enhancing her femininity. Here, in the footwear, we find many "wedge heels", which allow to increase the support surface, making it easier to stay in balance, and sometimes even replacing the usual uppers (the upper part of the shoe), with elasticized fabric, so as to promise also a more comfortable fit. The best example is certainly the black suede sandal worn by Sharon Stone in the sequel to the film "Basic Instinct".

Room 7 (Egyptian Room)

The Egyptian room, twin of the Gothic one, takes up another of the themes dear to the end of the second half of the 1800s: Egyptomania. Probably influenced by Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, and for us Venetians, by the pride of having given birth, in nearby Padua, to the explorer Gianbattista Belzoni, who with his adventurous life and his amazing discoveries, inspired the figure of Indiana Jones to the screenwriter George Lucas, for his successful film series. This space houses the 2015 "Capsule collection" by the English designer Nicholas Kirkwood. With the intention of celebrating the 80s, as he remembered them as a child, he creates models that refer to the films and games that populated his childhood. Here then are the "neon city" atmospheres of Blade Runner, rather than the robot of Star Wars or the unforgettable Millennium Falcon. And who has never played Pac-man? The Mattel Hot Wheels cars are well represented by a flaming red metallic body, but another obsession remains the legendary DeLorean from "Back to the Future", to end with the real protagonist of the century, the one that changed everything: the motherboard of the first Macintosh.

Room 8 (Laboratory)

In the laboratory-room, it is told how shoes were made YESTERDAY; with the world of the cobbler and all that was necessary and sufficient to make a pair of shoes and how they are made TODAY, thanks to the model maker's table with all its accessories and the images of the macro-steps that characterize today's complex production. The second image is perhaps the most evocative: the blurred figures of the designer and the model maker (the fashion house and the manufacturer) who, despite often having conflicting interests, through continuous and constant dialogue must pursue the common goal of transforming the artist's work of art (the sketch) into a PRODUCT: that is, something that can be worn, industrially reproduced and, last but not least, appealing to the market.

Room 10 (Small Church)

This space, dedicated to the "Madonna delle Grazie", replaces the old church that was located inside the park until the second half of the 18th century. When the palace was renovated at the beginning of the 19th century under the new western wing, it was decided to place the current oratory with a door to the outside, with the intention of involving the local community in the religious life of the family, as advocated by the new principles of equality and fraternity, spread by the Napoleonic campaigns. The original furnishings include: a wooden crucifix on the wall, of Venetian craftsmanship, above the internal door, the paintings of the 14 stations of the Via Crucis, the embossed brass oil lamp, dated 1857, and the altarpiece of the 19th-century Venetian school, which represents a Madonna and Child. From recent acquisitions, on the other hand, come: the processional statue in white wood of San Luigi Gonzaga, the shrine with the relics of San Crispino, the martyr saint who with his brother San Crispiniano was a shoemaker, already patron saint of the cordonniers in France, then elected patron saint of the shoemakers of the Riviera del Brenta. Deserving of special attention is the detached fresco by a Venetian painter dated 1565, which portrays a Madonna and Child, surrounded on the right by San Rocco (protector of lepers and more generally against plagues) and on the left by San Francesco (recognizable by the friar's habit, the wound on his side, the crucifix in one hand and in the other the closed book of the Franciscan Rule). The baby Jesus is represented standing, naked with a coral necklace around his neck. This is a custom, found in 16th-century paintings, taken from popular tradition, according to which such necklaces or bracelets, in addition to their ornamental value, were considered real amulets, to which was attributed the magical power to ward off the evil eye and protect against diseases.

Room 11 (Porsche Design)

Luigino Rossi met Ferdinand Alexander Porsche during the YSL fashion shows and, thanks to their shared passion for sports cars, the two decided to try to do something together. In this space we can see all the elements that characterize the creative process: on our left the ARTIST: the image of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche; in front of the WORK OF ART: 5 of the sketches that the Porsche studio sent to our factory; on the opposite side, but especially under the windows, the SOURCE OF INSPIRATION: the cars produced by the car manufacturer; But here comes the Riviera del Brenta, with its skills: on the right we see the model maker's PROJECT, the attempt of our technicians to begin to give three-dimensionality to the initial idea. And finally the PRODUCT: in the two columns we see respectively the “Formula 1” and “Gran Turismo” models, produced always the same since 1978, changing only the materials. These are the first “Car-shoes” in the history of Fashion: a comfortable and practical accessory for driving the sports car par excellence. Its profile follows the silhouette of the Porsche 911 and the sole mounted on the shoe also follows the tread pattern of the Pirelli P6 tire, again the one mounted on the Porsche 911. We like to point out that some models are clearly in women's sizes, so this model, to drive a sports car, a prerogative of the male world until then, opens up a new world and new habits to the female gender. This reminds us that Fashion, in addition to having the task of photographing society at a given historical moment, can also take on the responsibility of suggesting new behaviors, more ethical and inclusive.

FIRST FLOOR - Room 12 (Christian Dior and Christian Lacroix)

Going up to the first floor, you'll find the collaborations with Mediterranean designers, and immediately a different atmosphere is noticeable, more focused on artistic values, particularly evident in the creations by Christian Dior. These are the most precious pieces housed in the museum, mostly prototypes with no other copies in the world, produced by the fashion house from the 1950s to the 1970s. Christian Dior was one of the first couturiers to design footwear specifically for his clothing, famous for his obsession with the "total look." He wanted his clients to leave his atelier dressed "Christian Dior" from head to toe. To achieve this, however, he needed to find the right collaborators. So, from 1953, he agreed to be assisted by the shoe designer Roger Vivier. It was a fortunate intuition: the collaboration lasted until 1963 (surviving even Dior's death in 1957) and was a great success; after the first two years of made-to-measure products only, they began to produce under license, thanks to the Charles Jourdan manufacturer, from the prestigious French footwear district of Romans. It was on one of these occasions, in the early 1960s, that Luigino Rossi, who knew a member of the Jourdan family, found himself working alongside them to meet the demands of an unexpectedly receptive market. From this experience, the young entrepreneur, who until then had only catered to a local market, discovered that he was able to satisfy an exclusive and demanding niche, earning 30% more on each pair sold, and that the products "sold themselves" thanks to the brand's notoriety and well-organized distribution channels. In light of these reflections, in 1963, he decided to approach the young designer Yves Saint Laurent, who had just opened his own fashion house after collaborating with Dior for several years. A collaboration that would last 38 years began: Yves would become the Designer with a capital "D," and Rossimoda, on the one hand, would be driven by his success and, on the other, would contribute to it. From that moment on, many fashion houses would turn to the manufacturer, asking them to make shoes, especially thanks to their renowned expertise in the production of boot counters, which the young designer helped to make very fashionable...

Room 13 (Yves Saint Laurent 1970s)

The next rooms are dedicated to Yves Saint Laurent. Having collaborated with the manufacturer for 38 years, it was possible to create a chronological journey, dedicating three rooms to him: one for the '60s and '70s, one for the '80s, and one for the '90s. We are proud to have worked with him, as he is a designer who was able to revolutionize society with his clothing: he took elements of the male wardrobe, such as the tuxedo, the safari jacket, the trench coat, the peacoat, and the boot (a prerogative until then of men and "loose" women), and gave them to women, in a historical moment of struggle for female emancipation; he gave them the courage to dare... In this first room, there are pieces that accompanied crucial moments in the history of fashion, from the boot worn with the safari jacket to those from the 1976 fashion shows inspired by the Ballets Russes or the green sandal from the "scandalous fashion show" of 1971. On the walls, you can admire the greeting cards that the designer created every year in limited edition for friends, important clients, but also for all his employees; according to him, the most beautiful message to wish anyone was to love and be loved. So, he re-proposed his "love" annually, always the same but always different...

Room 14 (Yves Saint Laurent 1980s)

The 1980s are a decade we remember for great optimism, faith in a better world, and an attraction to opulent taste. Thus, the models are flashy, highly decorated, pieces with strong personalities. Emblematic among them all is the golden viper décolleté, whose precious surface was covered with gold spray paint, just for the sake of making it more striking. Also amusing are the "polka dot wedges" resting on a fake lawn, reminding us how the thoughtful Yves never forgot to have similar heels every season, so that his "friend-clients" would not have to give up "being at their best" when they had picnics or garden parties.

Room 15 (Yves Saint Laurent 1990s)

The 1990s are a difficult period for the designer: tied to his younger years, he becomes nostalgic and struggles to interpret contemporary times. In this room's display, many "remakes" of past successes are noticeable, as if Yves were seeking that lost popularity again...we see the iconic musketeer boots in crocodile leather (two were needed for this precious pair) created by Roger Vivier for YSL in 1963, the sandals from the scandalous collection of 1971, but above all the Pilgrim, the most popular of all: the shoe that, once again, Roger Vivier created for his friend Yves and that the latter had the young Catherine Deneuve wear in the film "Belle de Jour" by director Louis Buñuel. In the film, the actress plays a bourgeois girl who leads a double life: during the day, when her husband leaves the house to go to work, she goes to a brothel and meets young strangers. The shoes in the film play a leading role in the "key" scene, where Severine, the protagonist, decides to change her life. From that moment on, stores selling them will have long lines of young people from "good families" who want to rebel against a conventional and restrictive upbringing.

Room 16 (Givenchy)

The rooms in this wing of the museum recount the most recent collaborations between the company and fashion houses. Perhaps the most interesting reflection to focus on in these spaces is trying to grasp the efforts of the young creatives who find themselves working for these brands, certainly very prestigious, but equally cumbersome, for whom they have the arduous task of creating products that are first and foremost original, secondly that capture the spirit of the times (that can be considered "fashionable"), but above all that are "recognizable," that is, that represent the "codes" of the brand, that DNA that maintains consistency in the collections and builds customer loyalty. Obviously, each of them interprets these codes differently. For example, in the room dedicated to Givenchy, you can admire on the left the footwear produced in the '70s and '80s, when the creative director of the house was still Monsieur Hubert and the muse was Audrey Hepburn, while on the right are the pieces produced from the year 2000 onwards, where the new creative directors have differently interpreted the style of the inventor of the little black dress: Alexander McQueen in column 129, Julien Macdonald in 130, and Riccardo Tisci in columns 124, 125, 126, and 127.

Room 17 (Fendi and Genny)

Rossimoda collaborated with the five Fendi sisters for a decade, around the 1990s, when their creative director was the talented Karl Lagerfeld, who managed to make even the most banal loafers luxurious and original, although our attention is certainly captured by the sandals with the suspended heel, in the center of this room: conceived by the designer for the summer of 2000 and sketched in a drawing, visible in the center of the wall between the two windows, it was created by our Modeling department with great effort of imagination, to find the right proportions of the lever, which was to replace the heel and above all to identify the material with which to make it, because it had to be sufficiently strong to support the weight of the body and its stresses in movement, but at the same time be flexible enough to accompany the feminine gait with softness: only tempered steel proved to meet these needs. The most precious model was then hand-painted on the upper and insole with an orchid, the designer's favorite flower.

Room 18 (Celine)

Celine is the brand with which the manufacturer currently collaborates, along with Givenchy, and the one with which it produces most of its turnover, so much so that a few years ago, the luxury financial group LVMH, which acquired Rossimoda in 2003, decided to merge it with the fashion house, officially naming it "Celine industrial platform." This space houses footwear created for various creative directors, from Ivana Omazic to Phoebe Philo and Hedi Slimane's creations. These are models with elegant yet clean lines, with bold innovations that make them very contemporary, if not futuristic at times, without forgetting a nod to tradition, which reminds us how this brand was born in Paris as a shop for elegant children's shoes back in 1945 thanks to Celine Vipiana, helped by her husband. The Kitaro sandal from 2009 and the surrealist "décolleté-foot" produced in 2013 are particularly striking.

Room 19 (Emilio Pucci and Loewe)

Enrique Loewe was a leather craftsman of German origin who, in 1846, started his business in Madrid with a group of Spanish artisans, gaining great notoriety for the quality of his products, so much so that he soon became the supplier to the Spanish royal house. In the sandal in the central column on the right side, you can see how, to decorate the upper, the golden tips that protected the most delicate points of the rigid trunks, characteristic of this fashion house, which made it famous in the world, have been recovered. Emilio Pucci's creations, on the other hand, stand out thanks to their kaleidoscopic patterns and opulent taste. The "Palio sandal" from the 2003 collection is perhaps one of the best examples of combining contemporary and tradition, finding inspiration in the designs of the flags of the districts of the Palio di Siena and in the colors of the island of Capri, the beloved "refuge" of the founder of the fashion house. But you can't leave this room without lingering on the sandal decorated with river pearls, Swarovski crystals, and feathers: do you recognize the pattern printed on the cleaning insole? It is a tribute to the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo in Rome in 1512.

The Museum Tour

The museum tour has come to its conclusion. We hope that our guests have grasped how much these precious accessories, born from illustrious creatives, in order to see the light, actually require a myriad of complex steps and a multitude of people with sophisticated knowledge and skills, which the fashion world still finds today in the tradition of the Riviera del Brenta territory.

THE GUEST HOUSE - Introduction (under the Portico)

In the first half of the 17th century, the Foscarini family acquired such prestige that they deemed the Hall on the first floor of the main villa inadequate for receiving their guests. So, they decided to transform a 16th-century storage shed for tools into a "guest house," a place to welcome "foreigners," their guests. The Venetian architect Francesco Contin, who had already worked for the Foscarinis in Venice, in the church of Sant'Angelo Raffaele, was probably commissioned for the work. The large central body, used as a ballroom and reception hall, was surrounded by two symmetrical side wings, with many rooms functional for welcoming guests, and preceded by a passageway portico, characterized by wide arches and a "Sansovino ceiling." It was Alvise Foscarini, Jacopo's nephew, who in 1652 decided to have the ballroom decorated to commemorate the marriage between his son Giovanni Battista and the Venetian noblewoman Chiara Soranzo. For this purpose, he called upon the best painters of the time: Domenico de' Bruni for the perspective and Pietro Liberi for the allegories.

Perspective

Domenico de' Bruni (1591-1666) was a painter originally from Brescia, a city famous for its artists specializing in perspective. The atmosphere of the composition is very reminiscent of Veronese's work, thanks to its light colors, the solemnity of the decoration, and the invention of "en plein air," present both on the ceiling and on the walls. The homage to the 16th-century artist is probably also due to the link between the Foscarini family and the Barbaro family (a daughter of Jacopo had married the son of Marc' Antonio Barbaro, patron of Palladio and Veronese at Villa Barbaro in Maser). But the painter adapts to the taste of the Baroque era by expanding the surrounding space with the impression of three-dimensionality, obtained thanks to the optical illusion of solids and voids and the three orders of columns with the coffered ceiling in perspective. To give an even greater impression of depth, the artist eliminated the balustrade that normally separated the real world from the virtual world and replaced it with a staircase, inviting the visitor to enter his world of imagination. He also breaks through the ceiling with a second virtual floor, a fake balustrade, and fake doors leading to fake rooms.

Allegories

The allegories within the quadratures, however, are attributed to Pietro Liberi (1605-1687), a Venetian painter, pupil of Padovanino, who had studied and traveled extensively. His success in his time was due above all to his predilection for profane art rather than sacred art, in profane art for nudes, particularly female ones, and for having given much grace and sensuality to these images, to the point of being considered a libertine painter by his contemporaries; he is recognizable for his Veronesian atmospheres, his palette of light colors, his women with abundant bodies, small faces, thin mouths, and almond-shaped eyes. But he is a man of his time, because he is able to give all these influences a new dynamism, which well represents the Baroque spirit. An example is represented by his characters in the foreground, painted diagonally to enhance the idea of movement. The patron Foscarini asked him to depict on the walls the mission of the noble family, which must always be an example of virtue both in times of peace and in times of war.

Allegory of War

In TIMES OF WAR, the gentleman has the task of resolving conflicts, not with armed struggle, as seen in the background, but with diplomacy (this could be a tribute to the founder Jacopo, who had the role of peacemaker of the Mediterranean, after the battle of Lepanto, between Christians and Turks), surrounding himself with DOCTRINE (recognizable by the scepter with the sun, the knowledge that illuminates the darkness of ignorance), with ELOQUENCE (with a clock in hand, to remember that words are more convincing when measured), but he is forced to sacrifice TRUTH (recognizable because she is always naked, with only a white scarf around her hips, to recall her innocence), who shows only her back, in the name of restored harmony.

Allegory of Peace

On the contrary, in TIMES OF PEACE, the mission of the noble family is to help the arts and sciences flourish. Here we see PRACTICE represented (dressed as a maid and always one step below theory, because always subservient to it, with the face of an old woman, because practice improves with experience), THEORY (dressed, on the contrary, as a noblewoman, always one step above practice, young, because theory, when correct, never ages). Both these figures have a compass on their heads: the first with the points downwards, the second upwards; according to the ancients, they were the opposite of each other, they had only one point in common, the fulcrum, that is, the objective: through the arts and sciences to go in search of TRUTH. Here is the woman who in time of war had to remain partly hidden, now she can be seen in all her splendor. In the background, we see an academy that partly recalls Raphael's School of Athens, but which is represented only by women (men are only the teachers), perhaps a reference to some female figure in the family dedicated to studies. On the terrace of the second floor, however, are the LIBERAL ARTS watching over the academy: the TRIVIUM for literary teachings (GRAMMAR with the water jug, DIALECTIC with the caduceus, and RHETORIC with the mirror) and the QUADRIVIUM for scientific teachings (ASTRONOMY with the terrestrial globe, MUSIC with the flute, GEOMETRY with the archipendulum, and ARITHMETIC with the Pythagorean table). Above the entrance doors are painted the coats of arms of the Foscarinis and the other noble families with whom the family was related: Da Mula, Morosini, and Soranzo.

Triumph of the Family's Virtues

The ceiling is frescoed with THE TRIUMPH OF THE VIRTUES of the Foscarini family: HOSPITALITY with the cornucopia overturned downwards and a putto helping it to release and distribute its riches; FAME with wings and a trumpet to spread the family's virtues as far as possible; THE SPLENDOR OF THE NAME with the club of the virtues of Hercules and a lit torch to illuminate them; GLORY and HONOR with three crowns, two of laurel (poets and heroes) and one of gold (princes); ETERNITY, seated on the terrestrial globe, with the sun and moon in her hands, recalling the continuous alternation of day and night, and a round drape in the background, which recalls the circularity of life.

Conclusion

The Villa welcomed many illustrious guests, especially towards the end of the 18th century, during the time of Doge Marco, including the writer Gaspare Gozzi. In the 19th century, the Villa underwent transformations to adapt it to the neoclassical taste, and even the gardens are inspired by the "false wild" style conceived by the Venetian architect Jappelli. At the end of the Second World War, this building was bombed and lost its east wing, which was later rebuilt. Today, the Villa and Foresteria have been restored to their former beauty with important restoration work that allows them to be revived with the same original spirit: thus the Foresteria resonates with music during the concerts that are periodically organized and with the voices of guests during conferences and receptions.