Johannes Huebl switched his fashion status from Fratelli Rossetti’s customer to collaborator.
The German tastemaker, who is a front-row fixture with his wife Olivia Palermo during fashion weeks, has tied up with the label on a footwear capsule collection dedicated to a specific desert boot he purchased a long time ago and grew particularly fond of.
“I don’t exactly remember when it was, but long before I met the Rossetti family,” said Huebl, adding that he wore it so much that he “probably had it fixed by a shoe repairman in New York about 10 times just because I loved it so much and it was the best design for an ankle desert boot that I hadn’t seen in any other shoe brand.”
“I received so many compliments on that shoe that when I then met the brothers — Diego, Dario and Luca Rossetti — I showed them an old photo of it on my camera roll and they weren’t as affected as I was with the success of it,” he recalled with a laugh.
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Huebl eventually convinced the brand to put an emphasis on the model, which resulted in a dedicated, focused capsule collection for spring to be launched on Friday at the Fratelli Rossetti stores in Milan, New York and Bruxelles, as well as on the brand’s e-commerce.
The range will offer the design in five colors, including the terra-cotta, burgundy, vicuña, blue navy and camel earthy shades. Retailing at 330 euros, each pair will be marked with the signature of Huebl engraved on the leather sole.
“The colors are all so different, I just can combine them so fabulously with all parts of my wardrobe,” said Huebl showing the burgundy pair through Zoom and defining that specific option “molto Italiano — so chic, and you don’t see this shade too often.”
Yet it’s the comfort of the model to really do the trick for Huebl. “There are so many companies that have these expensive design sneakers and sometimes I wear them and I have blisters immediately walking around the block, which doesn’t fulfill the task of a shoe for me,” he noted. Huebl also underscored that are plenty of Fratelli Rossetti designs on his shoe rack, ranging from slip-ons to lace-up options, admitting he has a soft spot for the category.
His wardrobe includes “another precious item” from the brand: a suede bomber jacket, which he also purchased in the past. In his mind, it further proves that the brand “really has a wide range of well-designed, well-crafted pieces in their product line.”
“Our partnership was born in a very natural and spontaneous way, from the first time we met there has always been a great feeling,” said the company’s chief executive officer Luca Rossetti, confirming the mutual love and adding that “Johannes’ international style embodies perfectly the essence of our brand.”
This match could open to new future developments product-wise, as Huebl confirmed there are “multiple ideas on the table” that could potentially lead to continue the collaboration between the two parties. “Whenever I go to Milan, the company is one of the closest that I work with, so it almost feels like family,” he concluded.
