About Repetto

The icon of French heritage that is Repetto was founded in 1947 when Rose Repetto decided to design a pair of shoes for her son, the dancer and choreographer Roland Petit. All the dancers at the opera house were seduced by these shoes, which were hand-sewn using the famous ‘stitch and return’ process, and they came to get their own shoes made by Rose Repetto, the only person who really understood their requirements. Nearly ten years later, in 1956, Brigitte Bardot gave her a very special order, when she was preparing to shoot And God Created Woman. The young dancer turned actress dreamed of a hybrid shoe that would give her steps some added elegance. Rose Repetto therefore came up with the Cendrillon ballerina shoes that became a legend thanks to Roger Vadim’s film. Three years later, the phenomenal success of the ballet and ballerina shoes led Madame Repetto to open an eponymous boutique at 22 rue de la Paix in Paris, next to the Palais Garnier opera house. Maurice Béjart, Rudolf Nureyev, Carolyn Carlson and all the dance prodigies rushed here, making the address one of the discipline’s infamous spots. In 1970, the singer Serge Gainsbourg turned the Zizi shoe – created by Rose Repetto for her daughter-in-law Zizi Jeanmaire – into his signature footwear. It was an essential part of his wardrobe and he went through a phenomenal quantity each year, finally becoming an ambassador for Repetto. A sleeping beauty in the late 1990s, Repetto recovered its prestige thanks to Jean-Marc Gaucher, who took over as Chairman and Managing Director in 1999.