Salvatore Ferragamo

Back in the late twenties before most of the big names in Italian fashion were even born, Salvatore Ferragamo was crafting beautiful shoes for some of the most famous feet in Hollywood. Born in Bonito, near Naples, one of 14 children. By the time he was nine he knew that he wanted to make shoes for a living, and convinced his peasant father (who considered shoemaking too lowly a profession) to allow him to move to Naples and become an apprentice. The wave of Italian immigrants to the United States had not yet ended, and by fourteen the youngster was on a slow boat to America.

Go West Young Man, said Horace Greely, and Ferragamo took the advice to heart. Hollywood was in its heyday, and the stars were revered as gods and godesses. After a short stint in a factory making cowboy boots, he graduated to making Roman sandals for the Cecil de Mille epics, and before long he had become the "Shoemaker to the Stars." He had great imagination and fantasy, and many of the original shoes he created in the thirties inspired big-name shoemakers in the sixties and seventies, as many observers noticed during a definitive exhibit of his work at the Victoria and Albert museum held during the fall of 1987.

But Ferragamo was unique in that he was not only interested in decorating a woman's foot, he wanted to be creative but wanted his client to be comfortable. In an era when many women squeezed their feet into the smallest size that was bearable, Ferragamo studied the anatomy of the foot, insisting that "High fashion and comfort are not incompatible." Actresses Anna Magnani and Ava Gardner were treasured customers, as well as Gloria Swanson and Theda Bara.

Back in Florence Ferragamo established headquarters in Palazzo Feroni-Spini on the Via Tornabuoni, Florence's toniest shopping street. In the fifties his shoes became available in selected American department stores, but although the shoes were manufactured on an industrial level rather than being handmade they retained their beauty, quality, and comfort. He was still a young man when he died in 1960, but his wife Wanda and his children have carried on the tradition, introducing a line of ready-to-wear that is simple but luxurious and features butter-soft leather garments. An extremely successful man's ready-to-wear line is also part of the Ferragamo line.