1898: Born in Bonito, Italy

1909: Apprenticed to a shoemaker in Naples

1911: Opened his first store in his hometown

1912: Migrated to the U.S.

1912-1923: Studied Anatomy, Chemical Eng. and Mathematics.

1923: Opened the “Hollywood Boot Shop”in Santa Barbara, California

1927: Returned to Italy and exported shoes to the U.S.

1929: Firm closed

1936: Rented 2nd workshop

1938: Purchased Palazzo Spini Feroni

1940: Married Wanda Miletti (six children)

1947: won the ‘Neiman Marcus Award’

1960: Died, in Fiumetto, Italy

Style

Salvatore Ferragamo

• Characterized by his use of colors

•Broke away from the heavy use of black, white, and brown

•Did not try to mask the materials used in his designs

•Ferragamo used the juxtapositions of color to highlight and accentuate the dynamics of the shape of the shoe and the materials used.

Patchwork Shoe 1942

• Always used new technologies and new materials throughout his career

• The common leather and steel designs of the time restricted his designs

• He created exotic and beautiful shoes, but they were functional and supportive as well.

Interchangeable socks with shoeThe Carmen Sandal

Raffia Sandal 1967

Ferragamo didn’t want his shoes to be an additional element of a style. He wanted them to be the defining element of a style,

elegance, or personality.

Patchwork Shoe 1942

ferragamo

1927-1960

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Phh6SXqm0

“To simplify is very nearly the whole of the higher artistic process; finding what conventions of form and what detail one can do

without- yet preserve the spirit of the whole.”Willa Sibert Cather

Ferragamo| materials

“When wars break out and raw materials grow scarce it is always the high-grade industries which suffer first and hardest. Top-class materials are not

merely strictly rationed, they disappear entirely from the market”.

With the shortage of leather and high quality materials, became increasingly adopted in the shoe and clothing industry from 1935 and during the war.

Testing his technical and creative abilities Ferragamo not only made use of cork and cellophane, but also made uppers in wool, cotton, crocheted

string, embroidered hemp, materials from the broom plant woven by hand.

Model for a mule with upper in felt, 1938

Cheap materials

Vinyl resins were increasingly used in the production of shoes and accessories because of the flexibility of the material, the ease with which it could be printed, the variety of possible colors and its strength. The full potential of these materials was realized in the

Fifties. In 1955 Ferragamo, who often used vinyl, especially for uppers, launched his transparent, invisible and indestructible sole.

Sandal with vinyl sole and heel in mica, 1955

Plastics

“My first major problem was to find a substitute for the fine quality kid-skins. I experimented with many materials but none were satisfactory. Then, one Sunday morning, I found the solution. My mother was extremely fond of chocolates, and this day I bought a box back to the house. As I unwrapped a chocolate for her I was attracted by its transparent

paper wrapping. I turned the paper over in my hands. Here might be the substitute I was seeking”. This marked the beginning of Ferragamo’s production of shoes in cellophane to provide elegant summer wear. The cellophane was often worked in combination with cotton, rayon, and other threads by the same women who made his raffia bands

and crocheted cotton uppers.

Laced shoe in crocheted cellophane, 1941

Cellophane

The shoes are bought plain and taken to the artist to paint on them the designs of your choice… anything you fancy.

Court Shoe in hand-painted canvas, 1930-1935

Painted cloth

He exploited these materials to make luxury shoes. When Ferragamo settled in Florence, straw manufacturing, one of the city’s most thriving activities, inspired him revive the use of this traditional material in shoes. The market sold nostrale straw, or

rascally, popular bark treated with chrome, grass from Philippines, and Manila hemp made from banana leaves and skin. Ferragamo’s favourite was raffia, a fiber derived

from the young leave of an east African palm.

Sandal in grass, 1936-38

Straw and Raffia

Steel or brass heels have graced shoes by Ferragamo since the Twenties. But they were at the height of fashion above all in the Fifties. In 1955 Salvatore Ferragamo filed a number of important patents. One was a metalized heel in various

colors, lined with lamina of aluminum; another was a “cage” heel, hollow and lightweight yet strong . The third, and even more ingenious, patent was for a multiple heel adorned with gem-spattered, gold or silver plated metal

decorations painstakingly hand-crafted to look like lacework. But the most extraordinary invention was the metal sole that Ferragamo patented in 1956, when he was called on to create the most costly shoe he’d ever made - an 18 kt

gold sandal

18kt gold sandal, 1956

Metallic

“Which of all materials is my favorite? None; or, rather, all. The material I work with today is my favorite today- Salvatore wrote in his

autobiography-“Nevetheless, if I like them all I must still confess to a recurring and fond regard for the use of kidskin-It is a beautiful leather,

smart and graceful and with a fine gentle feel to the fingers”

Court shoe in calf, 1952

Leather

At the end of the Twenties the demand for exotic skins increased enormously, often combined with polished skins, suedes, calf and kid, as

well as with new decorative skins in imitation reptile. Reptile skins regularly appeared in 1920's and 1930's Ferragamo collections.

Court shoe in crocodile (M. Monroe), 1958-59

Exotic skins

During the 1920s new materials were explored to create extraordinary and elegant effects. At the end of the decade sea leathers were invented. These were the skins of fish, prepared in a special way. In Italy the Salp in Rivarolo

Canavese, Piedmont, specialized in the tanning of fish skins. In the second half of the 1930s it made an agreement with Genepesca to supply fish skin which, when tanned, was marketed under “Sirena” trademark. Salp supplied Ferragamo

with his dentex skins.These skins, being comparatively small, required great skill in the cutting of the uppers and in the design of the shoe. Since 1928, Salvatore Ferragamo had used the sea-leopard skin, a fish found in Northern Waters.

With the outbreak of war sea-leopard disappeared from the market. In 1954 Ferragamo reintroduced it after signing an agreement with the Sipo Trading Company, distributors in Denmark. The deal was widely publicized in the press and on

local television and was supported by Queen Ingrid who ordered several pairs of sea-leopard shoes in various colors.

Court shoe in dentex skin, 1930-35

Fishskin

Ferragamo |decades

Beginnings to death.

Sandal with grosgrain cloth upper, 1930

1921-1930

Sandal with upper formed with padded gold kid bands. Platform with layers of cork covered in

various colors of suede. (J. Garland), 1938

1931-1940

Sandal with upper made in crocheted raffia in various colored bands. Wedge cork sole. 1942

1941-1950

Court shoe with ochre suede upper, decorated with five holes lines with shades of polychrome kid. 1958

1951-1960

Ferragamo | inventions

“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.”

Certain Ferragamo invention patents involved the revolutionizing of centuries-old traditions of making shoes. In 1931, a system of instep

reinforcement in metal laminates, the shank , was created which was lightweight but able to provide rigid reinforcement.

Support device for the shoe sole archPatent 281241, January 1929

Shank

In 1952 Ferragamo designed a high-heeled shoe, in which the arch of the foot was lined with the same leather as the upper, limiting the sole to the

front and heel. The model proved to be tough but flexible, like a glove, and the patent was known as the gloved arch.

Support device for the shoe sole archPatent 281241, January 1929

Gloved Arch

Borrowed from the mocassin of America’s native Indians, in which the sole mounts the heel to become the upper, Ferragamo’s shell-shaped

sole contained and caressed the foot with its curved, embracing form.

Ladies’ shoe with the sole prolonging over the back of the foot by the arch of the waist, in order to improve

stiffness and foot support.Patent 78902, June 1960

Shell-Shaped Sole

In 1951 Ferragamo patented a new kind of woman’s shoe. Underneath it revealed a close fitting sock in a variety of colors and materials, called a ‘Kimo’ and inspired by

the Japanese tabi. This model was used by Ferragamo for the first ever Italian fashion show, featuring clothes by Schuberth. The idea of a multi-purpose model has been used by Ferragamo several times over the years in its creation of accessories, from

bags to eyewear.

Ladie’s sandal combined with a counter-shoe stocking

Patent472261June 1952

Kimo

Ferragamo |techniques

“Quality, quality, quality: never waver from it, even when you don’t see how you can afford to keep it up. When you

compromise, you become a commodity and then you die.”

Before Salvatore Ferragamo, needlepoint lace was only used to decorate clothing, underwear and household linen. At the end of the twenties, Ferragamo defined a new

purpose for the lace by using it to form the uppers of his shoes. Tavarnelle, Mercatale and Greve, all small towns in the area between Florence and Siena, were the centers of

production, relying on piece-workers. The great innovation made by Ferragamo was the introduction of colors. He adopted Tavarnelle needlepoint lace in 1930’s and 1950’s. Both

periods witnessed a revival of Romanticism in fashion.

Court shoe in Tavarnelle lace, 1935

Tavarnelle Lace

Becoming a stylistic hallmark, over and above the fluctuations of fashion and tastes, the perfect expression of Salvatore Ferragamo’s preferences for

combining colors and materials and renewing the language of fashion even when using the most traditional of leathers.

Shoe with patchwork suede upper, 1942-1944

Patchwork

Salvatore Ferragamo’s decision to settle in Florence was influenced as much by the survival there of traditional artisans as by the beauty of the city and its works of art. He was confident that Florence would

provide inspiration, materials and expert hands for his new enterprise. Embroidery was one of the oldest of the city’s handcrafts, with an impressive history of superb production. The embroiderers received the cloth or skin uppers already cut which they might work in a variety of ways, given a wide choice in the type of stitch

and decoration.

Court shoe in chain stitched upper, 1930-35

Embroidery

Handcraftsmanship, as defined by Tramezza stitched welting, is used to make various styles that exhibit seamless consistency between the sole and the upper. This complex construction

process helps balance sturdiness and resistance with peerless flexibility and comfort. If the soles are periodically repaired and replaced, shoes with hand-stitched welting can be worn “forever” and their fit becomes shaped by the foot’s imprint. At Ferragamo, workmanship is

technical and precise. The hand crafted welting process for just one pair of shoes takes several hours.

Tramezza

Eight Golden Rules for Shoe Care

1. A new pair of shoes should never be worn for many consecutive hours. Once your feet are completely accustomed to the shoes, you can begin to wear them all day.

2. Never wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row. Let them rest for at least a day before wearing them again.

3. Always use a shoehorn when putting on your shoes.

4. Before removing a lace-up shoe, loosen the laces completely so the shoe slips off more easily.

5. Once you have taken off your shoes, insert the made-to-measure shoetrees.

6. Shoetrees should also be used when shoes are wet from rain or snow. In this case, the shoes should not be rested on the soles but on their sides, and left to dry for an entire day.

7. Each time you wear a pair of shoes the should be cleaned and polished, even when they still look shiny.

8. Should you not wear your shoes for some time, coat them with a thin layer of polish, put them in the cloth sack provided, and keep them soles down in a box.

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