Tondowsky

Alain (1969). French footwear designer. Polish by name and descent, he moved to Paris, where he attended the courses of the Studio Berµot. He has always taken inspiration for his creations from the actresses in Hitchcock films from the 1950s and the refined elegance of Romy Schneider in the 1970s. Even though he changed and modified each season his models and his details, the style of his creations reflected and remained bound up with the sort of ideal women, but at the same time with a mixture of opposites, the superabundance of the 1950s with Japanese minimalism. Beginning in 1989 he designed the Collection of Stéphane Kelian for a year and, in the years that followed until 1994, he worked with Gianfranco Ferré for Dior. He also worked for the theater. After working as a consultant for the purchase of accessories for the department stores of Printemps, in 1997 he set up in business on his own and put his own name on his womenswear line. Beginning in 2001, he added a menswear line, which was especially successful in the United States. The line featured broad, comfortable shoes with thick soles, reminiscent of traditional British men’s shoes. The new womenswear Collection was called Pure Instinct and was conceived for various types of women, which he called “les poseuses.” High, stiletto heels, pointed narrow toes, each shoe had an ideal model. It might be Bianca Jagger, Iman, or Gerry Hall. Each model bore the name of the woman for whom it had been designed. Tondowsky loves white shoes even in the winter and little straps that wind around the ankle many times, a jagged revealing edge and a high heel, stout equestrian boots. Aside from the single-label shops in Paris, he is distributed in 60 sales outlets around the world, including two in Milan, the Vetrina di Beryl and Viverre.