The early days of the brand
Salvatore Ferragamo was born in Bonito, Italy in 1898, ranking eleventh among fourteen brothers
sisters. Due to a poor family environment, he started working as a shoemaking apprentice in his early years to help support the family. In southern Italy at that time, shoemaking was regarded as one of the most humble jobs, but Ferragamo was full of ideals and wanted to carry forward this despised craft. So when he was nine years old, he determined to create perfect shoes that combined beauty and practicality. . At the age of thirteen, he already owned his own shop and produced his first pair of tailor-made women's leather shoes, which was the first step in building his fashion empire.
In 1914, Ferragamo came to the United States and first opened a shoe repair shop with his brothers and sisters, and then went to California. At that time, the California film industry was developing rapidly.
Ferragamo Since then, he has developed an inseparable relationship with movies. He is known as the special shoemaker for movie stars. For example, the Roman sandals he designed have appeared in many movies, including Cecil B. DeMille's classic "The Ten Commandments" ( Ten Commandments).
In the late 1940s and 1950s, Italian fashion developed rapidly. The production capacity of the Ferragamo factory was as high as 350 pairs of shoes per day. Many film and television celebrities, such as Greta Garbo, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Eva Veron and Marilyn Monroe all flocked to the shoes designed by Ferragamo. There were even rumors that Garbo once ordered 70 pairs of shoes designed by him.
As many stars began to wear Ferragamo products off the screen, orders increased significantly, but Ferragamo was not satisfied. He continued to try to find out the secret of making shoes that always fit, and even studied at university for this purpose. Human anatomy, while auditing chemical engineering and mathematics courses to discover new knowledge and methods of caring for your skin and using different materials. Ferragamo makes shoes that are durable and focus on natural balance, while leather shoes must ultimately be made by hand.
Later period of the brand
In 1927, seeing the lack of experienced shoemakers in Italy, Ferragamo decided to return to his hometown and opened his shop in Florence, with as many as 60 employees. At that time, he was the first person to mass-produce handmade shoes.
However, after the Wall Street stock market crash in 1929, Ferragamo declared bankruptcy in 1933. Forced to do so, it could only focus on developing its hometown market.
Due to the war, leather was restricted, but this encouraged Ferragamo's design ideas. He used two materials, woven and dyed coconut fiber and cellophane, to make the uppers, and the soles were made of wood and water. The shoes are made into high-heeled platform shoes and concave heels, and are painted or engraved with brightly colored geometric patterns, or decorated with golden glass. Ferragamo designed the concave, beautiful cork wood heel in 1936 because he could not continue to use iron sheets to add to the arch of the shoe due to the shortage of iron sheets. In fact, these heels are not a novel concept, but his design made these styles popular and won the favor of women during World War II.
In 1947, Ferragamo won the Naiman Marcus Award, known as the "Oscar of the fashion industry" for his transparent glass shoes, becoming the first shoe designer to win this award; his award-winning work was meticulously designed, The heel is sunken into an F shape and covered with golden sheepskin, while the upper has transparent nylon threads. In 1948, Ferragamo continued to lead the trend, and extremely thin and pointed high heels became a gorgeous foot fashion, creating another new fashion. Ferragamo published his autobiography "The Shoemaker of Dreams" in 1957. By that time, he had created more than 20,000 designs and registered 350 patents. In 1960, Ferragamo passed away.
Led by Ferragamo’s wife Wanda and his six children, the business of Salvatore Ferragamo’s shoe kingdom has now expanded to include ready-to-wear, jewelry and leather. Ferragamo's products have spread all over the world.
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