Biography

Salvatore Ferragamo (5 June 1898 – 7 August 1960) was an Italian shoe designer and the founder of luxury goods high-end retailer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. An innovative shoe designer, he established a reputation in the 1930s. In addition to experimenting with alternative materials such as fish skin, he drew on historic inspiration for his shoes. After studying shoemaking in Naples for a year, fourteen year old Ferragamo opened a small store based in his parents' home. In 1915, he emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, where one of his brothers worked in a cowboy boot factory. After a brief stint at the factory, he convinced his brothers to move to California, first Santa Barbara then Hollywood. It was there that he found success, initially opening a shop for repair and made-to-measure shoes, leading to a long period of designing footwear for the cinema. Reluctant to accept that his shoes could be beautiful but uncomfortable to wear, he studied anatomy at the University of Southern California. After spending thirteen years in the US, Ferragamo, now thirty-three returned to Italy in 1927, settling in Florence. He began to fashion shoes for prominent women, including the Maharani of Cooch Behar, Eva Perón, and Marilyn Monroe. He opened a workshop in the Via Mannelli, experimenting with design, while applying for patents for his innovations. He filed for bankruptcy in 1933 due to bad management and economic pressure, but was able to expand his operations in the 1950s, including a workforce of 700 artisans who made 350 pairs of shoes per day, by hand. He died in 1960 at the age of 62, but his name lives on as an international company, which has expanded its operations to include luxury shoes, bags, eyewear, silk accessories, watches, perfumes and a ready-to-wear clothing line. At his death, his wife Wanda and later their six children (Fiamma, Giovanna, Fulvia, Ferruccio, Massimo, and Leonardo) ran the company. A museum dedicated to his life and work opened in the Palazzo Spini Feroni in 1995. The palazzo had been bought by Ferragamo in the 1930s. In March 2013, his fashion house, Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A., established the Ferragamo Foundation in Florence. The foundation was formed to cultivate young fashion designers, based on his ideas.