ferragamo's creations

  'Carmen Miranda' Mirrored Shoe

 

'Ida Lupino' Wedgie Corked Shoe

 

(above) Ferragamo's photographic montage of "shoe lasts" (wooden forms specifically designed for heel height, toe shape and style of footwear) and the famous starlets that wore them.

F-E-R-R-A-G-A-M-O. Salvatore Ferragamo, internationally known as the man born to make shoes and handbags for the rich and famous. Born in Bonito, a region of Campagnia, Italy in 1898, Salvatore made his first pair of shoes when he was just a young boy of nine years old. After his schooling in Naples, Ferragamo, opened a small shop in his parents home. At the age of 16, he then moved to Boston, MA to work with one his brothers in a cowboy boot factory.

It wasn't long after that Ferragamo convinced his brothers to move to Santa Barbara, CA, then south to Hollywood. There he opened a small shoe repair and made-to-order shoes for the wealthy, most to be celebrities, thus designing shoes for the most beautiful women in the movie world.

Due to his partial dissatisfaction for styling shoes for the stars, he also wanted to design shoes that were of comfort, so he went to to USC to study the anatomy of the foot. In 1927, Ferragamo return home to Italy and continued his career in Florence, designing shoes for the most distinguished and affluent women in the world~one of them being Eva Peron.

Throughout all his his of experimenting with outlandish forms and styles and even bankruptcy in 1933, Ferragamo, built his empire even larger with his workforce, making over 350 pairs of hand-made shoes a day by 1955. In 1960, Ferragamo died at the 62, but his legend lives on. His wife and family now run the Ferragamo empire.

The Salvatore Ferragamo's flagship boutique in Waikiki gives the viewers a peek into the world of "Ferragamo's Creations". An installation of exquisite shoes and handbags between the 1920's to 1950's, resurrected in limited numbers from the archives of Ferragamo's iconic designs of over 13,000 originals. Each shoe purchased will come with a certificate of authenticity and describes the shoes history and unique design. The Royal Hawaiian Boutique marks only the second time that this exhibit has travelled in the US. The collection includes shoes created for celebrities~Ava Gardner, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn,  Audrey Hepburn, Carmen Miranda and Ida Lupino.

A visionary and inspiration, a man ahead of his time with designs from the truly elegant shoe to the most bizarre objet d'art, "Ferragamo's Creations" will live on, long after we've been gone.