Strong identity, high quality of Italian manufacturing, international taste: these are the features driving the new brand positioning of Vic Matié.

Renato Curzi, Group CEO, tells the story of the brand, spanning more than 40 years.

"Starting from the shoemaker artisan know-how, in '87 I decided to create several brands, I used a name of French inspiration, Vic Matié, and tried to revolutionize the system: to bring artisans to collaborate with big business, combining quality manufacturing and industrial strength. The Made in Italy is a great heritage; we are capable of creating beautiful products and have the expertise to really make them with responsibility, passion, high quality. Even today I want to get emotional, get excited with new strategies, like the first time; for me reaching the arrival point means getting to a new point of departure. "

What is modern and new, today?

"You have to create truth. Deviate from the fashion system and create beautiful objects of timeless design, rich in value, and technical know-how. We must keep with the rhythms of the international markets, make the effort to equip ourselves and go out boldly, have trusted partners and employees who can tell the product’s story and enhance it. When I buy a shoe, I wear it, I use it to the end, then I remember it, and so I want a similar new one, perhaps a more contemporary one, or I will buy just the same one again. "

Europe equals the domestic market, in addition to Russia, Turkey, China, the United States and North America. Linea Marche is expanding and the brand Vic Matié has also expanded with a new segment: 87 Vic Matié, marking the celebratory year of birth. The two collections are created by a single vision but correspond to two different needs of the same person and the market.

Silvia Curzi, art director Vic Matié, expressed her creative independence with energy and tenacity, constantly evolving, with a new and resolutely contemporary outlook.

"Both collections enhance the personality of the wearer. Vic Matié remains the area of research and innovation, with precious materials and footwear whose shape is never ordinary. It will speak the language of design and contamination with the world of cinema and independent music. 87 Vic Matié is a more iconic and recognizable collection, whose attitude and price range is closer to an everyday range, using the language of the web and social media. "

Collections that resist stereotypes, cutting across opposites, like feminine and glamorous versus gritty and urban, in compliance with the DNA of the brand, which is about beautiful and innovative shoes that are also usable, wearable, not only for show or red carpet.

How did you get inspired for the new autumn-winter 2015-16?

"The inspiration for me is a process that includes not just seasonal themes but a deep, timeless look on the contemporary and the concept of luxury construed as independence in making your own style and creating alternative objects. The next season we presented with an engaging and highly narrative cross-media event, with a video installation by the collective Karmachina, and with the participation of the actress Micaela Ramazzotti and singer Marie Fisker. Representing a woman who moves across different and contrasting environments, telling the dual personality of Vic Matié. "

Sporty and metro in a feminine way, she chooses footwear built through design but also through a history of manual steps (involving up to half a day working in a manual conveyor). Rubber details, lightweight and solid mono-block soles, wedges, flared heels and decided toes. Metal finishes on neat and geometric pieces, sometimes sharp and square, always made of strong and dynamic material, like brushed leather, pony, nubuck, textured leather, fatted calf.

The latest Milan headquarters of Vic Matié, are set in a post-industrial building, it will be both showroom and meeting place, to discover new talents in the independent arts, something very close to the philosophy of the designer and the Maison.

For more information visit: www.vicmatie.com

Text by Barbara Tassara

In collaboration with the fashion magazines, Collezioni: www.collezioni.info