by Shadia

Salvatore Ferragamo

/ Shoes / Shoe Designers /

When women like Marilyn Monroe and Eva Peron turn to you to design your shoes, you know that your creations are a gold mine. Salvatore Ferragamo of Italy, fashioned shoes that caught the attention of women akin to Monroe and Peron’s stature and taste.

Born near Naples, Ferragamo moved to the US in his early teens and stayed in several cities, but it wasn’t until his move to Hollywood that success embraced him. Catering to the Hollywood stars of the 20s, Ferragamo seemed to be just getting started. However, this “shoemaker to the stars” had a curiosity that needed to be satiated: How to create a shoe that fits just as well as it looks. This curiosity led to the study of anatomy while still in the US, where learning the distribution of weight on the feet greatly influenced his upcoming designs.

In his early 30s, the shoe designer returned to Italy, calling Florence home. His knowledge of the human anatomy, coupled with his homeland’s political and economic turmoil at the time – Mussolini’s reign – drove him to innovative designs, whether it was in the materials (cork, wood and others, as opposed to leather) or the sole of the shoes.

And it is Ferragamo who is acknowledged as the man that offered the platform shoe to the fashion industry. Ferragamo invented a wedge shoe made of leather, cork and metal.

This gold ankle strapped sandal, and multi-colored platform was designed for Judy Garland in 1938.

Ferragamo continued to design his way into international acclaim until his death in 1960. The Ferragamo fashion house, however, continues to garner international success. Now run by his family, the Ferragamo name lives on as a quality standard in luxury shoes.

Famous names today that may be seen wearing Ferragamo out and about, or in the movies, include: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Al Pacino, John Travolta, Eva Mendez, Drew Barrymore and many more.