The symbols and Greek mythology behind Lamperti Milano

It’s a crisp November night. The year is 2013. Erika Lamperti draws all through the night. She’s had an idea in mind for years, a dream: shoes. The time has come to release this dream from the hyperuranium and transport it into reality.

Beside her, an unnatural glare. From a computer screen. Her brother Federico is at work, further realising what had been but a vision not long before, transforming the drawings into three-dimensional models.

The next step: selecting the best materials, seeking out excellent handicraftsmen, sussing out the market.

And that was how the Lamperti Milano brand was created, like in a modern fairy tale. It instantly succeeded in entering the luxury goods market and was able to capture international markets too, including celebrities in both Europe and America, with its highly distinguished shoes of strong personality.

The Lamperti siblings entrusted production to handicraftsmen in Porto Sant’Elpidio, in the Marche, and Parabiago, in Lombardy, thereby tracing an imaginary bridge between two of Italy’s and the world’s key shoemaking districts.

Everything is handmade, and the brand’s website features a special behind-the-scenes section explaining and showing how the shoes are made.

A big, ancient-looking, well-thumbed book regularly appears in the shots accompanying the collections. It’s not there by chance. Erika and Federico draw their inspiration from the classics: the verse of an ancient poem, rich and complex Greek mythology, masterpieces of classical literature, philosophical thought and symbols become shapes and details, taking form in dizzyingly high heels and colour matching.

Their most recent collection, styled for spring-summer 2017, “is inspired by Hesiod’s Theogony, the mythological poem telling the story and genealogy of the Greek gods,” they explain. “Chaos, which in the poem refers to the initial state of the universe, is portrayed in the collection as a disorderly and disjointed mass of bright colours intent on interfering with the brand’s traditional palette.”