The Man Who Changed Fashion Forever- Salvatore Ferragamo
When you think of Fashion, an Italian luxury brand, Salvatore Ferragamo comes to mind. Who was the man Salvatore Ferragamo? If that is of interest to you, keep on reading.
Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898 in a poor family in Benito, Italy. A town 64 miles from Naples, he was the 11th child in his family. Four of his brothers left for American, hoping to achieve the American Dream. But Salvatore at the time was not ready.
Salvatore was fascinated with shoe design from a young age of 6. He would visit a shop near his house to learn the art and science of shoemaking. His visits to the shop helped him design his first shoe, a shoe for his sister. Her sister wore that shoe to the church. After watching people admire her shoe, Salvatori had no douth that he wanted to pursue shoe design.
Fast forward, at 13 he opened his own shoe shop in his parent’s houses. Making shoes was not a quick task; because he had to make them by hand it was time-consuming. Salvatore wanted to speed up the process and to find out if there is a quick process, he saved some money and left for America at 14. He joined one of his brothers in America, who happens to work at a boot factory.
For Salvatore, the factory experience was a disappointment even though he found the machining process impressive, the shoe itself was a disappointment, they were heavy and awkward. He realized that the true value in a shoe lies in making them by hand.
In the United States, the west coast was becoming popular for movie business. The first movie in Hollywood was released in 1911 and in 1919 Salvatore moved to the west coast. He bought a shoe repair shop in Hollywood, where threw word of mouth he was known by celebrities.
His shoes looked good they were stylish, had amazing colors but they lacked comfort. Salvatore decided to take a class in Anatomy at the University of Southern California and studied human foot. With the new knowledge, he began to reshape his designs, to make them more comfortable. His shoes got popular and before he knew it he had orders coming in with not enough time to fulfill them, as he was making shoes by hand.
Witnessing the kind of shoe that results in mass production, he moved back to Italy and opened a shop. He combined the assembly line technique with his own manual technique and it worked wonders. Orders started to come in not only from Italy but also from the country he thought he had lost customers from, US.
In the 1930s during the great depression, Salvatore’s company went bankrupt. By the end of the 1930s world was at war. It was hard for Salvatore to find a suitable material for his shoes. But being the creative mind he was, he started to designs shoes from everyday material; plastic, wood, and wire. These turned out to be some of his most famous designs.
In the mids of the war, Salvatore married Wanda Ferragamo-Miletti. A girl from his home town of Bonito, they had six children. After the war, Italy started to rebuild itself and for Salvatore, orders started to come in from around the world.
He opened a store in New York City and started to design handbags. In 1960 at the height of his success Salvatore Ferragamo was diagnosed with cancer and he passed away. His wife Wanda Ferragamo-Miletti kept his dream alive. She had no business education or expertise, but she was courageous and continued his business.
Salvatore Ferragamo wanted to make shoes that were comfortable, stylish, flexible. Salvatore’s shoe design has influenced the fashion world forever.
