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In partnership with Venetian shoemaker Nadia Pegoraro, Sara Muzio (Architecture 2001) has launched a collection of shoes inspired by the architecture of Venice.

Architecture and art, for Sara, go hand in hand; she believes that architecture is, at its best, an applied art. Despite the legacy of modernism stripping away the more decorative elements from architectural design, Sara says: “It is important to recognise the aesthetic value of architecture, the artistic value of architecture that make it a creative profession.”

Inspired by the “beautiful geometries” of the floors inside the churches and palaces of Venice, Sara wanted to create a treasurable souvenir for the city, in contrast to the available “tat” which “flattens the identity of the city to an easily reproduced symbol like a plastic gondola”. 

Instead, Sara and Nadia’s shoes are intended as a “real, practical item that you can use all the time, but that also have a very special meaning because they belong to, and come from, a place”. 

Sara says that her designs are “a way to encourage people to notice things about architecture which they might not have appreciated before, or even noticed”. She adds: “They draw out the richness of the city and give people a different way to take away memories from a place that they love and visit.”

The shoes were exhibited in Venice in April at Lo Verso Art Studio and Sara already has plans for a second line of shoes based on patterns found in Copacabana.