Roger Vivier’s Rose Blooms Again for Fall ’25 — And Creative Director Gherardo Felloni Wants to Make it a House Signature
Katie Abel
Executive Editor
The rose is blooming again at Roger Vivier for fall ’25 as creative director Gherardo Felloni explores a new motif he hopes will become a house signature.
“I love flowers in general, and I really love the rose,” the designer said at the label’s Paris Fashion Week presentation, aptly titled “La Rose Vivier,” on Thursday. “It’s really beautiful and delicate, but if you [pick it up] it the wrong way you’re going to be hurt. It’s quite a beautiful explanation of femininity.”
While 3D flowers are now ubiquitous in fashion, Vivier’s use of the floral embellishment — beginning in the 1940s — was another example of the founder’s focus on innovation. He was the first footwear designer to take the rose from a couture hat and put in on shoes, as seen on his collaboration with milliner Suzanne Rémy in 1943-44. Vivier’s work in the 1950s also featured the rose as a recurring detail, both within his own collection and also for designs he crafted for Christian Dior.
“It’s an iconic thing for us, but something that nobody really knows about,” Felloni said. “It’s nice for us to tell this story now.”
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Above all, the rose represents joy for the designer, especially during these tumultuous times. “I like to show what I love. In this tough moment, we have to think about next year, the next few years. I like to think it’s going to be better,” said Felloni, in his characteristically upbeat manner.
Felloni loves to take a theme and run with it, and the rose is the star of a bright and colorful collection, which features vibrant hues of pink, green, orange, and purple.
The flower is fashioned as a sculpted metal bud; a twisted leather knot; and organza strips — all of which are applied on pumps, sandals, ballerinas, gilets, bags, hats and jewelry. (At the presentation, a talented artisan was weaving the organza roses by hand, giving attendees a glimpse into the intricate process.)
Of course, every rose has its thorn — and Felloni relished the chance to explore the contrasting elements of the flower. He reinterpreted the namesake’s Talon Épine heel, a unique stiletto with a pointed thorn. And Felloni’s ballerina flat and pumps have a tiny thorn detail near the toe, which provides an extra element of allure.
The Rose Vivier mule is an homage to a design from 1965, where a red satin rose adorned the squared toe of a white cotton shoe. Felloni’s updated version, in satin, is decked out with a metal rose surrounded by spiraling petals. A matching geometric clutch is also decorated with the metal rose, and its circular thorn handle can be retracted.
The designer, an ardent supporter of the arts, also brought the romantic theme to life with a performance featuring members of the corp de ballet of the Opéra de Paris dancing against a mirrored backdrop. The dancers’ gestures echoed the unfurling of rose petals.
The deeper message of the collection resonated with “The White Lotus” star Leslie Bibb, who attended the presentation during a whirlwind week that took her from the Vanity Fair’s Oscar Party on Sunday to Paris for the Balmain show and Vivier. (She was back on a plane Thursday afternoon.)
“Something I’m really into is this duality of the strength and the softness,” Bibb said. “It’s so cool that people are embracing things that seem in opposition of each other, but that are in unison. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”
Bibb and some of the other high-profile attendees — including Dianna Agron, Olivia Colman, Gwendoline Christie, Virginie Efira, Catherine Deneuve, Regina King, Saekyeong, Yeji and others — posed in front of the super-sized rose sandal, complete with its thorn heel of course.
