Berluti in Paris:
Craftsmanship and the Quiet Language of Modern Masculinity

by Vera Von Monika

Paris does not reward excess. It responds to measure, to precision, to gestures that feel considered rather than performed. At a moment when luxury increasingly competes for attention through spectacle, Berluti’s recent Paris gathering offered something rarer: a reaffirmation of craftsmanship as cultural language, and masculinity as quiet authority rather than display.

Founded in 1895 by Alessandro Berluti as a bespoke shoemaker on Rue Marbeuf, the Maison has spent 130 years refining an approach to men’s elegance rooted in handwork, material intelligence, and time. Berluti’s identity has never been about trend or provocation. Instead, it has been built on patina - literal and metaphorical - where leather bears the trace of human touch, and style emerges through use rather than declaration.

This philosophy was palpable at Berluti’s Paris event held in conjunction with its 130th anniversary. Staged during Paris Men’s Fashion Week, the gathering avoided theatricality in favor of atmosphere. The setting, intimate and historically resonant, underscored what Berluti continues to defend in contemporary luxury: the idea that heritage is not nostalgia, but discipline.

Rather than presenting masculinity as dominance or display, Berluti articulated it as presence. Shoes, tailoring, and leather goods were not framed as objects of desire alone, but as extensions of character, items meant to accompany a life, not perform for an audience. This sensibility felt particularly resonant within a fashion landscape saturated with visual noise and accelerated consumption.

Within this context, the presence of Lee Junho, Berluti’s global ambassador, felt less like a celebrity appearance and more like a natural extension of the Maison’s evolving cultural dialogue. Junho embodies a form of masculinity that aligns closely with Berluti’s ethos: composed, disciplined, and inwardly focused. His public persona has never relied on excess or provocation, but on precision, an ability to hold attention through control rather than insistence.

What makes this partnership compelling is not visibility, but translation. Junho operates at the intersection of Korean cultural refinement and European luxury, offering a bridge between East Asian notions of measure and European traditions of craft. In Paris, his presence did not dominate the room, it harmonized with it. That harmony reflects a broader shift in how European maisons increasingly understand influence - not as volume, but as resonance.

Berluti’s appeal today lies precisely in this refusal to compete for immediacy. While many luxury houses chase relevance through novelty, Berluti continues to invest in longevity. Its signature Venezia leather, its hand-applied patinas, and its measured silhouettes speak to a clientele that values continuity over disruption. In this sense, the Maison’s anniversary was less a celebration of the past than a statement about the future: craftsmanship as resistance to speed.

Paris remains the stage where these values are tested and translated. It is here that global figures are absorbed into a European visual language, and where heritage brands renegotiate relevance without surrendering identity. Berluti’s Paris moment did not seek to redefine masculinity, it quietly reaffirmed it.

Berluti proposes something increasingly rare: that elegance endures when it is measured, that luxury gains meaning through use, and that true authority is often expressed in silence. At 130 years on, the Maison does not ask to be noticed. It simply remains… precise, composed, and unmistakably itself.

Author’s Note

This piece reflects an ongoing interest in how European craftsmanship and Asian cultural sensibilities increasingly intersect in contemporary luxury, not through spectacle, but through shared values of discipline, measure, and emotional restraint.