When luxury means comfort

Saturnin Loafer Camoscio by Italian shoe brand Berluti. Provided to China Daily

Luxury means different things to different people. It is often associated with wealth or money and is commonly manifested through a visible object, such as a handbag or a watch that blatantly symbolizes an aspirational lifestyle.

Paris-based Italian shoe brand Berluti's exclusive clientele lives "not in the luxury of appearance but in the luxury of being". Being comfortable, that is.

How often do we hear luxury and comfort being used in the same vein? Fourth-generation family member Olga Berluti believes that it is impossible to be elegant if one is not comfortable and well-shod.

"Shoes that hurt the feet are a sign of vulgarity," she says.

In 1865, cabinet-maker Alessandro Berluti arrived in Paris from Marche and worked as a boot-maker.

Throughout its history, family members have catered to men of style and substance such as actors Richard Burton, Frank Sinatra and Marcello Mastroianni, and Italian directors Federico Fellini and Sergio Leone among others.

Olga Berluti is the only female boot-maker in the world. As a teen, upon seeing Jesus Christ's feet nailed to the cross, she made it her mission to "take away the nails that hurt men's feet".

In 1959 when she joined the company to learn boot-making, women were not allowed to do stitching. Olga then busied herself with other areas of the trade, such as leathers, orthopedic studies, foot diagnosis, construction of lasts and what she loved most of all, servicing the customers.