Walter Steiger

Walter Steiger
© BAK / Ruth Erdt

Walter Steiger


Essay

The Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion has awarded the Grand Prix De­sign to Wal­ter Steiger (born 1942) for his work as a shoe de­signer. For over forty years, his prêt-à-porter col­lec­tions have been en­thu­si­as­ti­cally ac­claimed by the in­ter­na­tional fash­ion scene. In 1974, the qual­i­fied shoe­maker opened his first bou­tique in Paris on the Rue du Tournon and was soon col­lab­o­rat­ing closely with renowned fash­ion de­sign­ers such as Karl Lager­feld or Claude Mon­tana, while de­sign­ing shoes for such brands as Chloé, Kenzo and Alaïa. Wal­ter Steiger's de­signs con­tinue to be an es­sen­tial com­po­nent of the col­lec­tions of nu­mer­ous fash­ion de­sign­ers. Orig­i­nally from Geneva, the de­signer is fre­quently sought after for his sim­ple, yet el­e­gantly aes­thetic style. A glance in the fash­ion blogs or in­ter­na­tional trade jour­nals is suf­fi­cient to il­lus­trate how top­i­cal his de­signs con­tinue to be. His sons, Paul and Giulio, both joined the com­pany in 2009. To­gether they have opened the bou­tique 'Mai­son Steiger Bot­tier' on the Av­enue Matignon in Paris where be­spoke shoes are cre­ated that are a syn­the­sis of lux­ury, su­perb crafts­man­ship and ex­clu­siv­ity.