The Human Touch: A Visit To Berluti’s New Factory
At Berluti’s new production facility in Ferrera, Italy, Riddle finds artisanal integrity, creative zeal, technological wizardry and a determination to hand such values down to the next generation
Article by Scott Harper
It’s somehow typical of Berluti to make a building with the dimensions of a giant shoebox an architectural triumph to rival any contemporary construction. But that’s what the much-lauded Parisian brand, which is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year, has managed with its new dedicated shoes and leather goods workshop a couple of miles outside Ferrara, Italy, which opened in January.
A collaboration between Berluti’s talismanic artistic director Alessandro Sartori and French architect Philippe Barthélémy, the building’s irregular-width, vertical panels of cedarwood and tinted glass, placed artfully in a random sequence, creates a sense of movement reminiscent of the Berluti signature patina – and because it’s cedarwood it will, like a patina, age beautifully as it weathers. The whole edifice couldn’t exude a more peaceful aura, one sympathetic to the rural surrounds made up of lawns, vineyards and fruit trees.
Stepping inside, the visitor is greeted by a vast shelf of lasts which backs the reception desk; stepping around this, he or she will find a capacious, natural light-dappled atrium. To the right is a Berluti Academy, nurturing the next generation of crafts-people who will shape Berluti’s future. Part of a plan to boost the economic vitality of the Emilia-Romagna region, in partnership with local authorities, the school offers a 400-hour training course which blends theory and hands-on experience in specialised shoemaking techniques.
It’s stepping upstairs though and taking a tour of the production line that will remove any doubts as to why goods created on these premises are not just worthy of their price tags, but take the notion of desirability to a new level. During our visit, Riddle witnesses elder statesman of the cordwainer’s craft perfecting the lines of the shoe designs using a pencil on wooden lasts before converting these into templates. We see dedicated artisans cutting, stitching and assembling shoes that will fill the shelves in the most prestigious precincts of Milan, Paris and London.
We see what is arguably the focal point for a company so celebrated for its patinas: the artist’s stations at which nuanced hues are applied to the now nearly finished products (tobacco, and vermillion are among Berluti’s trademark colours), layer after layer of pigment being applied with a dedication and meticulousness bordering on obsessive before a final glazing adds extra gloss. There are even some special order designs on display, which are having intricate imagery applied by one of the world’s leading tattoo artists.
However, it’s perhaps in the leather room that Riddle is hit the most forcefully with the sheer level of dedication this company pays to quality. Redolent with the aroma of kangaroo, velvet calfskin and Nappa leather (it actually smells a lot stepping inside an Aston Martin for the first time), the room is full of the finest quality examples of a commodity that is becoming scarce: perfect-quality hide.
Here’s a little pointer which tells you all you need to know about how Berluti approaches its craft. Most shoe factories would use computer software to analyse the shape of a specific cow’s skin – no two are alike – then display the hide filled with identical upper shapes at chaotic angles on a giant screen, showing the cutters how to divide it up with absolute minimum wastage.
Berluti, on the other hand, are insistent that, because the grain of the animal’s skin goes upwards, towards its spine, every single shoe made in the factory should be cut with the toe pointing ‘northwards’ on the skin, creating a stronger shoe – and to hell with the waste. Another striking aspect of our tour is the fact that the only processes which are mechanised are utterly menial ones – those where the human touch would be redundant.
All in all, the facility is what we expected and more: a bastion of artisanal values, one that represents craft, dexterity, passion and integrity in an era of soulless mass-production. And here at Riddle, we’ll never hesitate before raising a glass to that. 
