about — Victor Vulpe - Bespoke Shoemaker

"Small things make perfection
but perfection is no small thing”

Sir Frederich Royce/
/Rolls Royce”

About

“My training as a visual
artist has tremendous
influence over the way
I approach shoemaking“

I graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Design in Timisoara, Romania in 2002, with a master degree in Art Teaching. As a visual artist, I first started by developing leather goods whilst learning classical shoemaking from numerous books on the subject. From 2005 onwards I started to make shoes for myself, later on developing bespoke shoes for interested customers.

I competed for the first time in the World Championship in Shoemaking in 2019 getting straight to fourth place, impressing the judges with a very complicated build

See here Paolo Scafora and other major players in the shoe industry have also been inspired by this concept and turned my ideas into ‘ready to wear’ production.
In 2023 and I was honored to receive the silver medal in the World Championships in Shoemaking with “The Greatest Boot Ever Made “
(Justin Fitz Patrick)

My training as a visual artist has tremendous influence over the way I approach shoemaking.  This is obvious especially in my pattern making and closing of the uppers. Every line is treated with great care and becomes a part of a very coherent composition. My shoes are in this way visually appealing and always intriguing with surprising elements that fire the imagination. Some of these surprising elements of my shoes can be described as defying reality itself.

My artistic approach to shoemaking produces true wearable works of art. What defines my style is the search to give meaning to every detail without being over decorative. In the same time my shoes are wearable, therefore nothing is left to chance regarding the fit. I have trained himself in all elements of shoemaking. This is extremely rare if not unique and provides me with 100 % control over all aspects of shoe construction and design. In the end my clients have the privilege to wear a work of art. My shoes are wearable sculptures made in leather.

I am a shoe artist with an obsession: to create the perfect shoe. Obsession is always the path to excellence.