Sex in the City‘s Carrie Bradshaw would agree that there’s only one Manolo; Jimmy Choo is a go-to brand for the shoe-obsessed in cities from Dubai to Denver; Rudolphe Menudier and Pierre Hardy are your avant-garde classics…but do you know Bruno Frisoni? Fashion editors and stylists do. Frisoni’s all over European magazine editorials, featured at Bergdorf Goodman and Geraldine’s in New York, but is he in your closet? Don’t deprive yourself any longer. Italian-born, Paris-based Frisoni has been churning out consistently tight and refined collections for more than four years now — designs that both quell women’s appetite for an of-the-moment trendy shoe (i.e. the denim button inspired pumps from seasons back), while still delivering ready classics to pull out for years to come. Frisoni’s well balanced sensibility and delightful underexposure is just the discovery for the shoe fetishista. His collections so far have slayed us with a myriad of innovative styles: striped silk ribbons streaming across kettle heels; diamante buckles on open-toe satin half-boots; and cone stacked stiletto heels for day. For spring 2003, his shoes invite you to imaginary destinations from Sloane Street to Kenya with Masai graphics, metallic rivets, celluloid pastilles, and flamenco ruffles in vertiginous high heels or super flat skinny soles. Frisoni is coming out of the stylist’s trunk, and into the mainstream closet.

- Meghan Cleary

Photo: Bruno Frisoni Spring 2003