When Angelo Ruggeri was first hired as a shoe designer for Sergio Rossi nine years ago, stilettos were still soaring and blinged-out glamour ruled footwear. In 2013, Ruggeri returned to the Italian label’s collection as design director, bringing with him a bevy of A-list fans and a new, art world-inspired approach to footwear.

“Fashion has changed completely,” Ruggeri tells Alexa. “For those like me, who have started at the end of the ’90s… the environment has evolved radically.”

The Sicilian-born designer spent the years between his stints at Rossi honing his craft at elite fashion houses like Giorgio Armani and Tom Ford, where he won over A-list stars like Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sienna Miller.

In contrast to those heady days of power dressing, many women today are embracing pragmatic “normcore” footwear, trading in their sky-high heels for more comfortable flats. Ruggeri and his team were early adopters of that trend, launching a sneaker line last year.

“Normcore [is] the revenge of real life against an obsolete idea of fashion,” Ruggeri observes. “It celebrates a more modern attitude.”

But while the brand is clearly embracing the new normal, it hasn’t completely abandoned its glam roots. “I love flat style and high heels,” Ruggeri says. “It only depends on the mood of the day.”

Ruggeri took a page from Henri Matisse’s 1940s and ’50s “Cut-Outs” (recently on display at MoMA) for his Sergio Rossi spring 2015 collection. The shoes evoke bold, overlapping foliage, transforming stilettos into wearable masterpieces.

“This collection is a creative exploration around the idea of pure beauty,” says Ruggeri. We couldn’t agree more.