Vibi Venezia is marking its 10th anniversary with new flats revisiting the Mary Jane style with a dainty touch.
The Italian footwear label is known for its chic furlane footwear — the traditional Venetian slippers that have helped founders and sisters Vera and Viola Arrivabene gain international recognition for over the past decade. Now the pair is adding the new Brigitte design to its ever-expanding assortment. Inspired to Brigitte Bardot, the velvet flats come with a delicate ribbon instead of the usual strap fastened by a buckle and rendered in a flaming red color.
Teased this week, the anniversary style will be available at 95 euros in spring 2025, and will be followed by other reiterations in velvet as well as in printed versions.
Meanwhile, to further mark the milestone, the Arrivabenes tasked longtime friend and artist Angelica Hicks – who already created the brand’s logo in 2014 – to design a series of illustrations depicting the ViBi world and its Venetian roots, including motifs like gondolas and Spritz cocktails.
The designs appear on celebratory merchandising ranging from baseball caps and tote bags, as well as on the invitations to the events the Arrivabenes hosted this week in Milan to fete the brand’s anniversary. They included a dinner party at Crazy Pizza, the restaurant launched by Italian entrepreneur and Formula 1 legend Flavio Briatore that just opened an outpost in New York, too, followed by a cocktail at ViBi Venezia’s store on Thursday.
Opened in 2022, the boutique marked a turning point for the label as its first directly operated brick-and-mortar unit. Located in Milan’s Piazza del Carmine, in the heart of the city’s arty Brera district, the 754-square-foot shop carries the whole ViBi Venezia offering, which includes the signature slippers as well as different styles, going from sporty slip-ons to feminine wedges, crafted from velvet, canvas, silk and damask fabrics. In addition, a kids line and homeware pieces in Murano glass by Giberto Venezia are also available at the location, which was designed to evoke a home rather than a shopping destination.
Key elements include a big, green velvet sofa — once housed at the sisters’ first apartment in Milan — as well as striped armchairs hailing from their residence overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. Baby blue colored walls painted by artist Assia Pallavicino, yellow curtains and a red-and-white striped carpet complete the space, punctuated by baskets showcasing the different pairs of shoes.
Since launching the brand, the Arrivabenes catapulted a low-key, local footwear style into a global one. Dating back to the 19th century, the furlane were originally produced from leftover fabrics and old tires, becoming a success among gondoliers as the rubber sole allowed them to have a firm grip while rowing without scratching the surface of gondolas.
Wearing the style since childhood, the sisters were regularly asked by their friends abroad to bring them pairs whenever they met them, so they sensed the demand for the style could have a bigger scale. Establishing a brand focused on the concept showed their willingness to support local artisans and celebrate their hometown, too.
Collaborations further served their mission of exporting the style around the world. As reported, most recently the Arrivabenes partnered with designer Alexandra O’Neill for a tie-up between Vibi Venezia and Markarian, resulting in romantic flats in light blue fabric, pale yellow tone with metallic gold leaves and in a white version with a royal blue floral pattern.
Previously, the label teamed up with the likes of Saloni on velvet furlane with handmade embroideries of bows, moons and stars, and Emilia Wickstead, reinterpreting flats in lightweight canvas and floral motifs to match the designer’s swimwear range presented for pre-fall 2022. In the past, the Arrivabenes also collaborated with Luisa Beccaria and developed special editions for retailers including Liberty London, Net-a-porter and LuisaViaRoma.
