“Roger Vivier: Heritage And Imagination” Is Not Just Another Coffee Table Place Hold
The newly launched book is source for fashion shoe heritage, imagination, dialogue, and creative transmission. Elizabeth Semmelhack chat with SEELE on her process for curating its pages…
So, you don’t think you need another coffee table book? Well, you do and just don’t know it yet. There’s nothing like walking into a home or office and seeing a coffee table book displayed elegantly on a shelf or table. Roger Vivier, the luxury footwear brand has recently unveiled their latest coffee table book Roger Vivier: Heritage And Imagination, A Contemporary Cultural Portrait by Rizzoli, which is more than just a retrospective book. It details the legacy of Mr. Vivier through a sort of living portrait. We discuss with Elizabeth Semmelhack, an independent scholar and the Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum, to talk about the legacy of this famed designer that has impacted fashion in more ways than one.
This isn’t the first book about Mr. Vivier’s work. Roger Vivier by Pierre Provoyeur in 1988, Mémoire de la Mode in 1999, and Process to Perfection curated by Semmelhack in 2012 dive into the various aspects of the brand’s artistic expression through shoes. But this new book does something previous books have not. It doesn’t just detail Mr. Vivier’s biography or object analysis, it unpacks a larger question of the brand’s broader cultural significance with contemporary voices and interdisciplinary perspectives.
The book is so much more than just a biography | Photo provided by Roger Vivier
In structuring the book, Semmelhack lays out 5 themes around the word Salon, the French word for living room. Le Salon de l’Héritage, Le Salon des Formes, Le Salon de l’Ornement, Le Salon de la Célébrité, and Le Salon de l’Imaginaire invites the reader to sit in a living room of sorts to have an intellection conversation and lesson of the ideas, images, and reflections outlined in the pages.
Semmelhack explains to SEELE the significance of Roger Vivier: Heritage and Imagination-
Elizabeth Semmelhack | Photo provided by Roger Vivier
Seele Magazine: How does the book capture the legacy and heritage of the Roger Vivier Maison?
Elizabeth Semmelhack: The book was conceived of as a conversation between past and present. Rather than treating Roger Vivier’s legacy as relegated to the past, I was interested in showing how his ideas and maybe more importantly, his spirit, continue to circulate within the Maison. I think that by allowing his archival work to sit alongside the Masion’s contemporary creations, the book demonstrates that at Roger Vivier, heritage is not static but is something that is constantly being interpreted, questioned, and renewed. In this way, the legacy of Roger Vivier emerges not simply as history, but as an active force within the Maison today.
SM: What impactful contributions did Mr. Vivier bring to the world of luxury shoewear?
ES: Throughout his career, Roger Vivier pushed technical limits, from refining the stiletto heel to experimenting with new proportions, constructions and materials. The Belle Vivier remains emblematic not simply because it is beautiful, but because it distilled modernism into a wearable form. Vivier helped secure the shoe’s place within couture, demonstrating that it was not an accessory to fashion, but central to its expression.
SM: How has Gherardo Felloni continued the tradition of Mr. Vivier as he leads the House — and how is this detailed in the book?
ES: What is most compelling about Gherardo Felloni’s work is that he does not treat the archive as something to replicate. Instead, he approaches it as material for dialogue. In the book, I trace how certain gestures, the buckle, the sculptural heel, the play between wit and refinement, reappear in new configurations. Felloni preserves the Maison’s spirit of invention while allowing it to evolve through constant reinterpretation.
SM: Most luxury brands have coffee table books. What makes this book unique, and why should people purchase it?
ES: I did not want to produce a simple history of the Maison. From the beginning, I was inspired by 18th-century salons which were spaces where rigorous ideas were explored alongside charm and conversation. The book gathers multiple voices and perspectives, allowing readers to move through the Maison’s history in a way that feels layered rather than linear. It is visually rich, certainly, but it is also analytical. My hope is that readers encounter not just beautiful objects, but also thoughtful engagement with larger ideas.
Photo provided by Roger Vivier
In its pages, a buffet of contributors skilled in their savoir faire of fashion offer insight like Global Brand Ambassador Ines de la Fressange, famed silver screen actresses Catherine Deneuve, Isabella Rossellini, Michelle Yeoh, Eva Green, Laura Dern, Cher, Christina Ricci, talented writers and cultural commentators like as Suzy Menkes, Carol Woolton, Anne-Sophie von Claer, Violette d’Urso, artist Nicolas Party and famed costume designer from Wolf of Wallstreet 1987 and Oppenheimer 2023 Ellen Mirojnick.
The brand’s creative director Gherardo Felloni has also been behind the book’s creation, ensuring it is seen as a living grammar in a contemporary light. Roger Vivier: Heritage and Imagination is part of the larger conversation that the brand is having with us all. Its new showroom opened during Paris Fashion Week in October 2025, and it is an open archive where the brand shares its history in a large space of grand salons. It’s a place where curators, writers, students, and designers who love fashion can visit. The book and the showroom invite ongoing dialogue with the past, present, and future as it nods to culture.
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