A hundred years after the opening of a shoe shop in 1923 by a young Italian dreamer who had emigrated to the United States a few years earlier, the exhibition Salvatore Ferragamo 1898-1960 gives a whole new echo to the creations of the shoe designer in the spaces of the Ferragamo Museum at Palazzo Spini Feroni in Florence.
Inaugurated on 27 October 2023, with closure scheduled for November 2024 and subsequent extension until 27 April 2025, the exhibition recalls the first travelling retrospective presented in 1985 at Palazzo Strozzi.
Compared to then, the curatorial perspective and the selection of contents have changed, as the emphasis is not only placed on the aesthetic value of the individual works, but rather on the documentary value in its entirety, that of the company and its protagonists.
The space-time context between the two wars on the Florence-Los Angeles axis is analyzed, in which Ferragamo's contribution to the definition of Made in Italy emerges. Plaster studies and photographs underline the profound anatomical knowledge of the human foot, evident with the introduction of a steel support plate, the cambrione, and the relative patent in 1931.
The exhibition not only celebrates his timeless creations, but offers an in-depth look at his life, highlighting his pioneering spirit and the relationships he nurtured.
1923 represents a key moment in his career, with the opening of his first boutique in Hollywood, so much so that the exhibition, inaugurated in 2023, wanted to celebrate its centenary. The exhibition explores the salient moments of this period, underlining his entrepreneurial nature and ability to anticipate trends and highlighting his ability to create not only elegant footwear, but true works of art worn by the icons of the star system.
The exhibition also highlights another important aspect of Salvatore Ferragamo: his intuitive entrepreneurial gaze, inclined towards innovation, in weaving the fortunate ante litteram link with the Golden Age of the American film industry.
Just think of the Rainbow wedges worn by Judy Garland or the Corkscrew Heels studded with fake pearls for Gloria Swanson, or the shoes worn by Anna Magnani, in Tavernelle lace, until then reserved only for lingerie, or the sandal that was presented during the first Italian fashion show. It was a Kimo sandal, inspired by the Japanese Tabi, which was launched during the fashion show organized by Giovanni Battista Giorgini in 1951, in the Torrigiani villa in Florence.
The Salvatore Ferragamo 1898-1960 exhibition aims to be an archive of memory, a sort of reel on which thoughts, objects and documents flow, in a continuous comparison with the exhibition project that underpins the museum institution. The Ferragamo Museum is the place chosen to preserve the memory of the founder, but on the other hand it also appears as a dynamic space in encouraging meetings, workshops aimed at facilitating dialogue between the company and the public, the past and the present and, to use Ferragamo's words, "an eternal endless tide".
