Ilse Crawford, principal designer at the architecture practise Studioilse that created the store, said, “When I look at spaces, I don’t just look at the visual. I’m much more interested in the sensory thing, the human context, the primal perspective, the thing that touches you.” And this of course corresponds exactly to the element that makes products by Sergio Rossi so enticing: their unique ability to hook directly into the undercurrent of yearning for ancient and primordial beauty that since time immemorial has been a part of man and woman.
Sergio Rossi has taken footwear into the realm of art in a literal sense. In October 2010 in Paris, the Bernard Ceysson gallery exhibited 18 boots hand-painted by Claude Viallat, an artist working in the Supports/Surfaces movement. These pieces, in which the artist developed the forms of his work around the shape of the boot, in consideration of the vertical seam, are the starting point for a series of accessories, boots and bags in screen-printed canvas with leather and suede, available in Sergio Rossi boutiques worldwide from summer 2011.