Billowing leather skirts and culottes, midi-length dresses of layered ruffles, and loose-fitting frocks adorned with bows and feathers define Salvatore Ferragamo’s spring/summer 2016 collection.
“Although the name may be synonymous with impeccably crafted shoes, this latest ready-to-wear collection proves the Italian label can deliver the whole package.” –Moda Operandi.
The collection represents the fashion house’s creative director Massimiliano Giornetti’s last bow after a nearly 16-year career with the company. His fondness for fitted silhouettes; using mixed materials, artistic touches, and technically impressive techniques; made him successful of carrying on Ferragamo’s legacy of cutting edge design and excellent craftsmanship.
Not long ago, I found myself at the Ferragamo Museum trying to escape a cold and rainy day in Florence and intrigued by the legacy that is Salvatore Ferragamo. Housed in Palazzo Spini Feroni, home of the Floretine Boutique and the company’s headquarters, the recently renovated Palazzo, with beautiful architecture dating back to the middle ages, is the ideal location to showcase Ferragamo’s decades of show-stopping designs.
Salvatore Ferragamo was born in the small village of Bonito, Italy in 1898. His passion for shoes started young and by the age of 13 he had opened his own shoe repair shop in Bonito. He soon joined his brother in Boston to work at a large shoe factory. Ferragamo was fascinated by modern shoemaking techniques but noted how they limited quality. The importance of quality and craftsmanship would later drive Ferragamo’s designs and own production process.
Salvatore Ferragamo with Sofia Loren as she tries on a sandal of Tavarnelle lace, 1955
In the early 1920’s, as the film industry was blooming, Ferragamo moved to Santa Barbara, California to open a shoemaking and repair shop. He soon followed the film industry to Hollywood when it moved in 1923. His store “Hollywood Boot Shop” launched his career as a designer and maker of shoes for the films, with the local press naming him “shoe maker to the stars”.
While in California, he studied human anatomy, chemical engineering, and mathematics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It was during his studies he found the first clue to the problem of distributing the body’s weight over the arch of the foot to ensure a comfortable fitting shoe. He patented an internal support for shoes made of steel, called the “shank”, which made his shoes both light and strong.
In 1927, Ferragamo moved back to Italy. Since he was keen to stay true to the Italian handcrafting tradition while integrating modern techniques, he chose to set up production in Florence because of its reputation for skilled craftsmanship. He adapted the assembly line to accommodate the highly specialized and strictly manual work of his shoe production process. It was in 1936 that Ferragamo set up his workshops and store in Palazzo Spini Feroni, which he later purchased for the company’s headquarters.
Salvatore Ferragamo with Christian Dior and Irene of Hollywood receiving the Neiman Marcus Award, the Oscar of Fashion, 1947.
The years following World War II saw many memorable inventions, such as the stiletto heel with metal reinforcement and the invisible sandal with nylon thread uppers. It was for this particular design that Ferragamo won the prestigious Neiman Marcus Award in 1947. Upon his death in 1960, Ferragamo had achieved his lifelong dream: to design and make the most beautiful shoes in the world.
The Vara Shoe
The design house eventually diversified beyond footwear but made sure to uphold its heritage of handcraftsmanship and an eye for detail that made it famous and continues to make it successful. After Ferragamo’s death, his wife and eldest daughter Fiamma, the only one of his children to have worked with him before his death, carried on the designer’s legacy. Fiamma quickly came to represent Ferragamo’s style and designed a number of celebrated shoes and leather goods; including the Vara shoe with a grosgrain ribbon bow, which is still in production today.
The Sara Battaglia Handbag Collection
It is still to be determined who will take up the reins as creative director. However the fashion house isn’t missing a beat and is instead paying tribute to the life of Salvatore Ferragamo through the launch of a capsule handbag collection. The Sara Battaglia for Salvatore Ferragamo collection celebrates the company’s commitment to promoting young talent and Ferragamo’s tireless creativity. A “combination of eccentricity and craftsmanship, of heritage and modernity, the collection Sara Battaglia for Salvatore Ferragamo evokes the concept throughout (the) Italian splendor of life, the playful search for pleasure, and (the) wonder that permeated the creative approach of Salvatore Ferragamo. ”—Sara Battaglia for Salvatore Ferragamo, on www.ferragamo.com. Handbags, clutches, small leather goods, and notebooks in various sizes are an innovative mix of colors and materials meant to invoke humor and the Italian spirit of design.
