The primary time I slipped my toes right into a pair of ViBis, in March 2016, I used to be on the Palazzo Papadopoli in Venice – the ancestral residence of Viola and Vera Arrivabene, the model’s founders – having fun with an aperitivo. In loped the twentysomething sisters bearing a basket stuffed with furlane, the standard rubber-soled gondoliers’ slippers – normally in velvet – relationship to the 18th century, and which the Arrivabenes’ mom, Bianca di Savoia Aosta, had been shopping for for years on the Rialto Bridge. “We had been consistently requested by our buddies the place they may get them,” says Viola.
And so started an e-commerce enterprise. Bedazzled navy, Kelly inexperienced bordered in emerald, chambray with fuchsia detailing, a cheeky camouflage canvas… ViBis decisively upped the gondoliere type sport. All hand‑stitched, good with cropped denims or a full-length night skirt, comfy, and – pleasure – a cinch to slide into and out of, whether or not hopping a gozzo or negotiating safety at Heathrow.
Six years, a number of collections – together with, most not too long ago, a collaboration with Emilia Wickstead – and an explosive social media phenomenon later, the sisters have opened their first bricks-and-mortar location, within the coronary heart of Milan’s Brera district. In line with their predilection for color, the parquet-floored area has ice-blue partitions detailed in cadmium purple. Ladylike sofas and tender chairs in candy-striped cottons abound. Greater than a boutique, says Vera, who relies in Milan and might typically be discovered on the premises, it’s “like our front room. We would like our prospects to really feel a part of our story once they go to.” Not such a stretch: among the furnishings was commandeered from the sisters’ first Milan flat, and the saffron-yellow curtains pinched from their mother and father’ home on the Grand Canal.
Furlane for males, girls and tots, together with zeppe (espadrille-like wedges), sturdier gymnasium footwear, and candy mary janes are all displayed in artfully lit alcoves that span from flooring to ceiling, in addition to on classic facet and low tables – and, sure, in raffia baskets, ready to be tumbled out.
