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Ferragamo


Timeless Elegance



Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898 in Bonito, a village about 100 kilometers from Naples, the eleventh of 14 children. From an early age, he demonstrated a passion for shoes. He spent hours watching the local cobbler work, even though his father refused, as shoemaking was considered the most humble of professions.



One day, his sister Giuseppina was forced to take Holy Communion and wear, as tradition dictated, white shoes. The Ferragamo family, however, lacked the money to buy them: it was a disgrace. Salvatore borrowed nails, thread, white canvas, and the necessary tools from the Bonito shoemaker. That night, secretly, he began making his first pair of shoes. In the morning, the shoes were ready, and his little sister was able to walk to church wearing them, to everyone's amazement. Salvatore was 9 years old. His destiny was sealed. He would become a shoemaker.



At sixteen, he joined his brothers who had emigrated to America. He worked for fifteen days at the Plant Shoe Factory in Boston, one of the most important shoe factories on the East Coast. He was fascinated by the modern machinery and work processes, but also saw their limitations in quality: machine-made shoes lacked the same quality as those he and most Italian artisans could make by hand.



In 1915, he moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he opened a shoe repair shop. California at the time was a fabulous land where the nascent film industry was thriving, and Salvatore began designing and making shoes for films. The great divas of the day became his loyal clients.



In 1916, he enrolled in evening classes at the Extension Division of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to study anatomy and understand the structure of the foot, which supports the health of the entire skeleton. He discovered that the body's weight rests on the arch of the foot and thus developed the definition of the perfect fit. He inserted a steel plate, the shank, into his shoes to support the arch, solving the problem of comfort.



When the film industry moved to Hollywood, Salvatore Ferragamo followed. In 1923, he opened the Hollywood Boot Shop, and the press began calling him "The Shoemaker to the Stars." In his autobiography, published in 1957, Salvatore Ferragamo recalled the bizarre orders he received from stars such as Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Jean Harlow, and Greta Garbo. Many of these designs are now preserved in the Salvatore Ferragamo Archive.



In 1927, Ferragamo decided to return to Italy and settled in Florence, a city traditionally rich in skilled artisans. Most of them, however, were skeptical of the new shoemaking and foot measurement systems introduced by Ferragamo. It was the younger workers who showed curiosity and interest in his project. Salvatore thus opened a factory that acted like a school, with 75 apprentices, under his direction. He revived the artisanal spirit typical of the city, but combined it with the production system of an American factory, dividing the process into segments. From his Florentine workshop, he began a steady flow of exports to America.



The Wall Street crash of 1929 had a profound impact on Ferragamo, given his close ties to the United States. The negative effects of the crisis and the instability of the American and global economy led to his bankruptcy, which was filed with the Florence court in August 1933. Once again, the production system had to be rethought, but Salvatore did not lose heart, recognizing the importance of a local clientele and a workshop in the center of Florence. In 1936, Ferragamo, through his sister, rented some rooms in the historic Palazzo Spini Feroni, a symbolic building of medieval Florence, and resumed his business.



The 1930s and the war were a period of great creativity for Salvatore Ferragamo, who seemed to draw new inspiration from these difficulties. In March 1936, Benito Mussolini imposed a broad program of nationalization and protectionism on the nation, epitomized by the slogan "autarchy." This was a response to the trade sanctions the League of Nations had imposed on Italy in October 1935 for its military aggression against Ethiopia. The highest-quality steel was requisitioned for armaments, and many other materials began to become scarce. It was in response to these problems that the cork wedge was born (patented in 1937), along with uppers in hemp, felt, and fish skin. Salvatore also used cellophane, inspired by the shiny, elastic wrapping of chocolates.



Thanks to his success, Ferragamo founded Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. in 1938. He was also able to begin the process of gradually purchasing the entire Palazzo Spini Feroni, which has remained the company's headquarters ever since. In 1940, Salvatore Ferragamo married Wanda Miletti, the young daughter of the doctor and mayor of Bonito, with whom he had six children: Fiamma, Giovanna, Ferruccio, Fulvia, Leonardo, and Massimo.



In the summer of 1947, Salvatore Ferragamo was invited to Dallas by Neiman Marcus, a major American department store, to receive the Fashion Oscar, citing his ability to combine Italian classicism and artisanal tradition with modern inventiveness. Until then, the prestigious award, established in 1938, had been given only to American designers. Among the shoes Salvatore Ferragamo brought to Dallas in 1947 were the "invisible" sandals with a wooden wedge heel shaped like an "F," like Ferragamo's initial, covered in leather and an upper made of transparent nylon fishing line. The idea came to Ferragamo from a worker returning from a fishing trip on the Arno River with a large fish. He had caught it using a new type of nylon fishing line. "The fish can't see it," he explained to Ferragamo. The model was a huge success and cost $29.75, the equivalent of four tons of coal.



The most famous Italian and international movie stars were Salvatore Ferragamo's clients, as were the world's high society figures. Many traveled to Florence to meet him at Palazzo Spini Feroni.



Salvatore divided the women who ordered his shoes into three categories based on their foot size. Cinderellas demand shoes smaller than size 6. Feminine and fashion-conscious, they must be in love to be happy. This list includes Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, but also the Queen of Greece, the Duchess of Windsor, and the Maharani of Cooch Behar. Venuses wear size 6. These women, generally very beautiful, hide a love of simple things behind their apparent frivolity, which is why they are misunderstood. Among them, he includes Marilyn Monroe. Aristocrats are those who wear shoes size 7 and up, like Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, and Lauren Bacall. They are sensitive and understanding, sometimes fickle.



On February 12, 1951, Salvatore Ferragamo participated in the first fashion show of clearly Italian-inspired designs, organized by buyer Giovanni Battista Giorgini in the ballroom of his home, Villa Torrigiani in Florence, in the presence of the international press and American buyers. For the occasion, Ferragamo created the Kimo, designed for the suits of Roman tailor Emilio Schuberth. Inspired by the Japanese tabi, it was worn with leather or satin socks that matched the color of the suit.



Salvatore looked to the future with optimism, but failing health led to his death in August 1960. His lifelong dream—to create and produce the most beautiful shoes in the world—had come true. But a new idea had begun to emerge in recent years: transforming Ferragamo into a major fashion house. Wanda, who until then had been a wife and mother, provided the new driving force.



When Salvatore passed away, Wanda was 39 years old. During his illness, Salvatore had already delegated ordinary and extraordinary powers to his wife, who became the driving force behind the company's transformation. She was supported by all the employees, including her eldest daughters Fiamma and Giovanna for the creative side, and her nephew Jerry, the son of Salvatore's brother, for strategies to optimize and mechanize production. Under her leadership, the company took a giant leap from a single-product line of footwear to a total look comprising clothing, leather and silk accessories, and perfumes.



When Ferragamo died, his daughter Fiamma was 19. She was the only one in the family to have worked alongside her father and took on the role of assisting her mother in reorganizing the business, becoming an interpreter of the Ferragamo style, alongside her sister Giovanna in clothing.



Shortly thereafter, the younger siblings also joined the company, each encouraged to pursue their own talents, a trait that would lead to the creation of new production sectors. Salvatore's dream not only survived the founder's death but also expanded and consolidated its international reach.



On February 9, 1967, in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas, Fiamma received the Neiman Marcus Award, the famous fashion Oscar bestowed upon her father twenty years earlier, for having "brought a new dimension to the Ferragamo name through the originality and freshness of his designs." Receiving the award were Valentino, Lydia from Rome, Venturini from Lucca, and Emilio Pucci, on behalf of all the Florentine artisans damaged by the 1966 Florence flood. The prestigious Life magazine featured the twenty-four-year-old on one of its covers.



In 1965, Fiamma decided to develop an in-house design and production of bags and small leather goods, as accessories to complement her footwear. The first press review article preserved in the Salvatore Ferragamo Archive featuring a Ferragamo bag dates back to 1969.



Over time, these accessories became increasingly important in the brand's product offering. In 1972, the prestigious American magazine Women's Wear Daily published a photo of a Ferragamo bag with a distinctive metal clasp.



It was the first time the "Gancini" symbol appeared, an ornament that would later be widely used on leather accessories, footwear, and scarves of the Ferragamo brand.



The years 1975-80 saw the development of the shoe and men's clothing collections, and the company continued to evolve, ultimately going public in 2011.



"This is my life's work: learning to make perfect shoes, refusing to put my name on those that aren't. So, please, beyond the story of the barefoot, ignorant boy who became a famous shoemaker, focus your attention on the pleasure that comes from walking well." Salvatore Ferragamo



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Ferragamo


Timeless Elegance



Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898 in Bonito, a village about 100 kilometers from Naples, the eleventh of 14 children. From an early age, he demonstrated a passion for shoes. He spent hours watching the local cobbler work, even though his father refused, as shoemaking was considered the most humble of professions.



One day, his sister Giuseppina was forced to take Holy Communion and wear, as tradition dictated, white shoes. The Ferragamo family, however, lacked the money to buy them: it was a disgrace. Salvatore borrowed nails, thread, white canvas, and the necessary tools from the Bonito shoemaker. That night, secretly, he began making his first pair of shoes. In the morning, the shoes were ready, and his little sister was able to walk to church wearing them, to everyone's amazement. Salvatore was 9 years old. His destiny was sealed. He would become a shoemaker.



At sixteen, he joined his brothers who had emigrated to America. He worked for fifteen days at the Plant Shoe Factory in Boston, one of the most important shoe factories on the East Coast. He was fascinated by the modern machinery and work processes, but also saw their limitations in quality: machine-made shoes lacked the same quality as those he and most Italian artisans could make by hand.



In 1915, he moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he opened a shoe repair shop. California at the time was a fabulous land where the nascent film industry was thriving, and Salvatore began designing and making shoes for films. The great divas of the day became his loyal clients.



In 1916, he enrolled in evening classes at the Extension Division of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to study anatomy and understand the structure of the foot, which supports the health of the entire skeleton. He discovered that the body's weight rests on the arch of the foot and thus developed the definition of the perfect fit. He inserted a steel plate, the shank, into his shoes to support the arch, solving the problem of comfort.



When the film industry moved to Hollywood, Salvatore Ferragamo followed. In 1923, he opened the Hollywood Boot Shop, and the press began calling him "The Shoemaker to the Stars." In his autobiography, published in 1957, Salvatore Ferragamo recalled the bizarre orders he received from stars such as Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Jean Harlow, and Greta Garbo. Many of these designs are now preserved in the Salvatore Ferragamo Archive.



In 1927, Ferragamo decided to return to Italy and settled in Florence, a city traditionally rich in skilled artisans. Most of them, however, were skeptical of the new shoemaking and foot measurement systems introduced by Ferragamo. It was the younger workers who showed curiosity and interest in his project. Salvatore thus opened a factory that acted like a school, with 75 apprentices, under his direction. He revived the artisanal spirit typical of the city, but combined it with the production system of an American factory, dividing the process into segments. From his Florentine workshop, he began a steady flow of exports to America.



The Wall Street crash of 1929 had a profound impact on Ferragamo, given his close ties to the United States. The negative effects of the crisis and the instability of the American and global economy led to his bankruptcy, which was filed with the Florence court in August 1933. Once again, the production system had to be rethought, but Salvatore did not lose heart, recognizing the importance of a local clientele and a workshop in the center of Florence. In 1936, Ferragamo, through his sister, rented some rooms in the historic Palazzo Spini Feroni, a symbolic building of medieval Florence, and resumed his business.



The 1930s and the war were a period of great creativity for Salvatore Ferragamo, who seemed to draw new inspiration from these difficulties. In March 1936, Benito Mussolini imposed a broad program of nationalization and protectionism on the nation, epitomized by the slogan "autarchy." This was a response to the trade sanctions the League of Nations had imposed on Italy in October 1935 for its military aggression against Ethiopia. The highest-quality steel was requisitioned for armaments, and many other materials began to become scarce. It was in response to these problems that the cork wedge was born (patented in 1937), along with uppers in hemp, felt, and fish skin. Salvatore also used cellophane, inspired by the shiny, elastic wrapping of chocolates.



Thanks to his success, Ferragamo founded Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. in 1938. He was also able to begin the process of gradually purchasing the entire Palazzo Spini Feroni, which has remained the company's headquarters ever since. In 1940, Salvatore Ferragamo married Wanda Miletti, the young daughter of the doctor and mayor of Bonito, with whom he had six children: Fiamma, Giovanna, Ferruccio, Fulvia, Leonardo, and Massimo.



In the summer of 1947, Salvatore Ferragamo was invited to Dallas by Neiman Marcus, a major American department store, to receive the Fashion Oscar, citing his ability to combine Italian classicism and artisanal tradition with modern inventiveness. Until then, the prestigious award, established in 1938, had been given only to American designers. Among the shoes Salvatore Ferragamo brought to Dallas in 1947 were the "invisible" sandals with a wooden wedge heel shaped like an "F," like Ferragamo's initial, covered in leather and an upper made of transparent nylon fishing line. The idea came to Ferragamo from a worker returning from a fishing trip on the Arno River with a large fish. He had caught it using a new type of nylon fishing line. "The fish can't see it," he explained to Ferragamo. The model was a huge success and cost $29.75, the equivalent of four tons of coal.



The most famous Italian and international movie stars were Salvatore Ferragamo's clients, as were the world's high society figures. Many traveled to Florence to meet him at Palazzo Spini Feroni.



Salvatore divided the women who ordered his shoes into three categories based on their foot size. Cinderellas demand shoes smaller than size 6. Feminine and fashion-conscious, they must be in love to be happy. This list includes Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, but also the Queen of Greece, the Duchess of Windsor, and the Maharani of Cooch Behar. Venuses wear size 6. These women, generally very beautiful, hide a love of simple things behind their apparent frivolity, which is why they are misunderstood. Among them, he includes Marilyn Monroe. Aristocrats are those who wear shoes size 7 and up, like Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, and Lauren Bacall. They are sensitive and understanding, sometimes fickle.



On February 12, 1951, Salvatore Ferragamo participated in the first fashion show of clearly Italian-inspired designs, organized by buyer Giovanni Battista Giorgini in the ballroom of his home, Villa Torrigiani in Florence, in the presence of the international press and American buyers. For the occasion, Ferragamo created the Kimo, designed for the suits of Roman tailor Emilio Schuberth. Inspired by the Japanese tabi, it was worn with leather or satin socks that matched the color of the suit.



Salvatore looked to the future with optimism, but failing health led to his death in August 1960. His lifelong dream—to create and produce the most beautiful shoes in the world—had come true. But a new idea had begun to emerge in recent years: transforming Ferragamo into a major fashion house. Wanda, who until then had been a wife and mother, provided the new driving force.



When Salvatore passed away, Wanda was 39 years old. During his illness, Salvatore had already delegated ordinary and extraordinary powers to his wife, who became the driving force behind the company's transformation. She was supported by all the employees, including her eldest daughters Fiamma and Giovanna for the creative side, and her nephew Jerry, the son of Salvatore's brother, for strategies to optimize and mechanize production. Under her leadership, the company took a giant leap from a single-product line of footwear to a total look comprising clothing, leather and silk accessories, and perfumes.



When Ferragamo died, his daughter Fiamma was 19. She was the only one in the family to have worked alongside her father and took on the role of assisting her mother in reorganizing the business, becoming an interpreter of the Ferragamo style, alongside her sister Giovanna in clothing.



Shortly thereafter, the younger siblings also joined the company, each encouraged to pursue their own talents, a trait that would lead to the creation of new production sectors. Salvatore's dream not only survived the founder's death but also expanded and consolidated its international reach.



On February 9, 1967, in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas, Fiamma received the Neiman Marcus Award, the famous fashion Oscar bestowed upon her father twenty years earlier, for having "brought a new dimension to the Ferragamo name through the originality and freshness of his designs." Receiving the award were Valentino, Lydia from Rome, Venturini from Lucca, and Emilio Pucci, on behalf of all the Florentine artisans damaged by the 1966 Florence flood. The prestigious Life magazine featured the twenty-four-year-old on one of its covers.



In 1965, Fiamma decided to develop an in-house design and production of bags and small leather goods, as accessories to complement her footwear. The first press review article preserved in the Salvatore Ferragamo Archive featuring a Ferragamo bag dates back to 1969.



Over time, these accessories became increasingly important in the brand's product offering. In 1972, the prestigious American magazine Women's Wear Daily published a photo of a Ferragamo bag with a distinctive metal clasp.



It was the first time the "Gancini" symbol appeared, an ornament that would later be widely used on leather accessories, footwear, and scarves of the Ferragamo brand.



The years 1975-80 saw the development of the shoe and men's clothing collections, and the company continued to evolve, ultimately going public in 2011.



"This is my life's work: learning to make perfect shoes, refusing to put my name on those that aren't. So, please, beyond the story of the barefoot, ignorant boy who became a famous shoemaker, focus your attention on the pleasure that comes from walking well." Salvatore Ferragamo



Products Ferragamo


Products Ferragamo Eyewear

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