In honour of its 50th birthday, the Italian shoemaker unveils a blue-hued collection of its finest work
The secret to permanence, according to Giuseppe Santoni, chairman of the eponymous Italian shoemaker and scion to its founder, is in the marriage of old and new. ‘At Santoni, we’ve succeeded in making our engineers more artisanal and our artisans more engineered,’ he says. ‘This unique synthesis has allowed us to preserve the soul of craftsmanship while embracing the precision and scalability needed in today’s world.’
Based in Le Marche – sandwiched between the Apennine Mountains and the Adriatic Sea – the Santoni shoe factory has been in operation since 1975. Shoes are crafted with principle, says Santoni, ‘under our roof, with our hands, our eyes and our heart’.
Over the past 50 years, Santoni has established itself via a renown for quality and craftsmanship, but also for its idiosyncratic approach to design. Santoni shoes are boldly sleek, almost elongated, and seem to swoop forward with gentle, curvilinear lines and delicate finishes. Rich colours and nuanced finishes pervade; you know a pair of Santoni shoes when you see them.
In celebration of the half-century, Santoni has unveiled the Meraviglia (“wonder”) collection, a compact range of shoes and accessories that look to demonstrate all the prowess and sophistication the brand has amassed over the past five decades.
Meraviglia's blue colourway
Comprising shoes as well as a briefcase (for men – there is a women’s collection, too), each design is cut from the finest calfskin, and coloured in a rich, oceanic hue of Blu Meraviglia, which is applied to the leather with the brand’s “velatura” hand-colouring technique. Each shoe is fitted with a multi-layer Arancio Santoni leather sole that creates a shadow.
The briefcase, realised in the same deep shade of blue, features braided stitching, hidden pockets and hand-sewn tubular handles.
‘The Meraviglia collection is something truly special,’ explains Santoni. ‘It represents the pinnacle of our savoir-faire. While every Santoni product is crafted with care and excellence, Meraviglia is entirely handmade, from start to finish. It’s the “cherry on the cake”, where our most refined techniques, our deepest know-how and our boldest creativity come together.’
The Eterna monkstrap, for example, is created via a painstaking process of ‘extraordinary skill’, says Santoni. The shoe is sculpted seamlessly from a single piece of fine calfskin and then shaped entirely by hand. ‘There are no shortcuts,’ he states.
‘The result is a clean, elegant silhouette with a soft leather lining that embraces the foot,’ he continues, ‘and a leather sole that beautifully balances form and function.’
Beyond the 50th anniversary collection, Santoni has commissioned a coffee-table book, Santoni Meraviglia, by renowned publisher Assouline. Written by fashion critic Luke Leitch and featuring photographs by Oliver Pilcher, it explores the culture of artisanship at the brand and unpacks its rich history.
