Inside Alan Buanne’s plan to give Vivaia a luxury feel without the luxury price

When Alan Buanne joined Vivaia as creative director in January, he brought a résumé built in the world of luxury footwear: training at Polimoda in Florence, senior roles at Nicholas Kirkwood and Bottega Veneta, and the launch of his own design-led label, Neous. Now, for fall/winter 2026, he is applying that same rigor to a comfort-first brand whose shoes retail between 129 and 249 dollars and counts podiatrists among their validators.

“My background taught me to pay close attention to proportion, construction, craftsmanship, and detail. Those principles are relevant at every price point,” Buanne told FashionUnited. At Vivaia, his goal is to apply that design rigor to footwear that supports everyday life and reaches a broader audience. “I am less interested in importing traditional luxury codes than in creating products that feel thoughtful, distinctive, and desirable on their own terms.”

Buanne said the real challenge for a designer is to create a shoe that looks incredible, but that a woman can put on in the morning and still want to be wearing at the end of the day. In his first full seasonal collection, Re:Work, his goal was to create shoes that feel “modern, emotional, and relevant across generations” without asking customers to choose between looking polished and comfort. That idea is reflected in his designs.

“We addressed common pain points through details such as roomier toe boxes, enhanced arch support, and cushioning. Women also aren’t dressing for work in one uniform anymore, so why should work footwear mean another black heel?,” he said.

The modern workwear served as inspiration for the collection. “The way women work and dress for work has changed, so we wanted to rethink familiar office silhouettes with a stronger fashion point of view, introducing new shapes, materials, and colorways,” Buanne said.

Buanne oversees all creative aspects of Vivaia, including product, marketing, campaigns, and online and offline experiences. To promote Re:Work, he created a fictional Vivaia office and invited fashion mogul Jenna Lyons as chief style officer and Emmy-nominated comedian Meg Stalter as chief comfort officer.

“Jenna has this incredible instinct for what makes something chic, while Meg brings this completely fearless, unpredictable energy,” he said. “Putting our chief style officer and chief comfort officer in adjoining offices and letting them fight it out felt like the perfect way to tell the story. They couldn’t be more different, but that’s exactly why they work together.”

The collection, now available at Vivaia's website, is accompanied by “The Other Side of Nature” capsule, which is described by Buanne as a “space to develop a more expressive side of Vivaia while remaining connected to the brand’s comfort-led design philosophy.”