Stivaleria Cavallin bootmakers is one of London’s best kept secrets. This super luxury Italian brand has a one and only discreet shop in London where designer Alexandra Kirk is available to measure you up for the boots of a lifetime. Stivaleria have a factory of sixty perfectionist artisans in mainland Venice, they do not make shoes, just boots for connoisseurs; their signature boot is made of one piece of leather with a single seam down the back of the leg and with a choiceof any heel. This brand’s mantra is elegance, there are various ready to wear boot styles, bespoke made-to-order or made-to-measure, nothing is too much trouble.
The company logo says it all, a four-parts design comprising of a boot symbolising knowledge, a heart for passion, a teardrop for perseverance and perspiration, and a hand for craftmanship, this logo in imprinted on the sole of each boot.
Alexandra has designed for Stivaleria for seven years, she was spotted straight form Cordwainers, Britain’s leading College for the footwear industry at The London College of Fashion. Alexandra was a footwear fetishist from the age of about five years, her mother remembers Alexandra pointing out the shoes her friends were wearing. She has a passion for footwear, art and making things thus it became obvious a shoe designer was the career for her. Alexandra draws inspiration from architecture, you can see it in her precision structured boots, she likes her designs to lengthen the leg and narrow the ankle, she creates a well-balanced last with never more than a 95milimetre heel, above this tips the weight forward. The Palladio inspired shop in Belgravia is panelled and painted white to show off the variety of coloured leathers and the bootsare displayed as sculptures.
When Alexandra is not wearing Stivaleria Cavallin boots, she is in flat shoes, her favourites being from fellow designer Nicholas Kirkwood, but she says “there’s no greater feeling than going barefoot in the grass.”
Together Stivaleria and Alexandra are working on a new development for later this year, boots with interchangeable accessories, buttons, chains, jewellery and fringes.Already many top luxury brands choose to manufacture at the Brenta Riviera Venice factory but Stivaleria’s dedication to elegance and comfort is unique.