Bernardo Sandals was founded in 1946 by architect Bernard Rudofsky

Bernard Rudofsky

Bernard Rudofsky was an Moravian-born American writer, architect, collector, teacher, designer, and social historian....

 and Berta Rudofsky. The Rudofskys went into sandal design following the 1944 exhibition, "Are Clothes Modern?" that Mr. Rudofsky curated at the Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The core ideas of the designs were those Bertha taught at Black Mountain College

Black Mountain College

Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...

. Monika Platzer writes, in the book Lessons from Bernard Rudofsky, "In contrast to closed footwear, which he condemned as "foot-deformers," Rudofsky preached the virtues of sandals as non-concelaing footwear; they represented a suitable type of shoe, one that transcended conventionality and ever-changing fashions."

The first collection was presented at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, and featured only 6 designs. All six designs consisted of strappy uppers on an asymmetrical leather sole that was pancake flat. The collection was almost immediately successful, and in the 1950s and 1960s high-end fashion magazines such as Vogue

Vogue (magazine)

Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...

and Harper's Bazaar

Harper's Bazaar

Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...

regularly featured Bernardo sandals in fashion editorials. By the 1960s Jackie Kennedy was said to own 16 colors of the same pair. The shoes were produced in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and the company has been sold several times.

The line is currently designed by Dennis Comeau,. The current Bernardo sandal line includes several of Rudofsky's original designs.