Berluti shoes: pierced, tattooed and slit - for starters

Olga Berluti took over the shoe company founded in Paris in 1895 by her ancestor Allesandro Berluti.

She's brought the legendary shoes, known for their deep, burnished patina and stylishness, into the 21st century and perhaps beyond.

She's created shoes with piercings, tattoos, engravings from 18th-century manuscripts, scars and patches, all with the elegant look of time past.

Sold in the U.S. only at Barneys New York, Berluti's opening its first American store on Madison Avenue next spring.

If you don't feel like making the trip across the pond, not to worry: they've got stores in Paris, London, Milan, Tokyo, Moscow, and Seoul.

I wear other-than-running shoes perhaps five days a year, so I don't have a whole lot of use for this exquisite footwear.

Still, they're awfully pretty....