Venice’s traditional gondoliere shoes head to the capital of fashion

The initial time I slipped my feet into a pair of ViBis, in March 2016, I was at the Palazzo Papadopoli in Venice – the ancestral household of Viola and Vera Arrivabene, the brand’s founders – enjoying an aperitivo. In loped the twentysomething sisters bearing a basket crammed with furlane, the standard rubber-soled gondoliers’ slippers – ordinarily in velvet – dating to the 18th century, and which the Arrivabenes’ mom, Bianca di Savoia Aosta, had been acquiring for a long time on the Rialto Bridge. “We were constantly asked by our buddies where by they could get them,” suggests Viola.

And so began an e-commerce enterprise. Bedazzled navy, Kelly eco-friendly bordered in emerald, chambray with fuchsia detailing, a cheeky camouflage canvas… ViBis decisively upped the gondoliere style sport. All hand‑stitched, great with cropped denims or a complete-length night skirt, at ease, and – pleasure – a cinch to slip into and out of, irrespective of whether hopping a gozzo or negotiating stability at Heathrow.

Six a long time, many collections – including, most not too long ago, a collaboration with Emilia Wickstead – and an explosive social media phenomenon later, the sisters have opened their to start with bricks-and-mortar locale, in the coronary heart of Milan’s Brera district. In trying to keep with their predilection for color, the parquet-floored area has ice-blue walls specific in cadmium purple. Ladylike sofas and soft chairs in candy-striped cottons abound. Far more than a boutique, claims Vera, who is centered in Milan and can often be located on the premises, it’s “like our dwelling area. We want our customers to feel portion of our tale when they stop by.” Not these types of a extend: some of the furniture was commandeered from the sisters’ first Milan flat, and the saffron-yellow curtains pinched from their parents’ property on the Grand Canal.

Furlane for guys, girls and tots, together with zeppe (espadrille-like wedges), sturdier fitness center shoes, and sweet mary janes are all displayed in artfully lit alcoves that span from ground to ceiling, as nicely as on vintage facet and coffee tables – and, certainly, in raffia baskets, waiting around to be tumbled out.