Salvatore Ferragamo (1898-1960) was an Italian shoes designer and the founder of the luxury goods retailer of the same name. He was born to a poor family in Bonito, Italy and started making shoes at age nine, designing high heeled footwear for his sisters and for himself.
After briefly studying shoemaking in Naples, Ferragamo emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts in 1915 and worked along with his brothers at a cowboy boot factory. He changed locations a few times before finally settling in Hollywood, where he made a name for himself, designing shoes worn in movies. Unsatisfied with the possibility that his creations looked good on the silver screen but were uncomfortable to wear, the restless designer decided to study anatomy at the University of Southern California.
By 1927 Ferragamo had moved back to Italy and settled in Florence, with his Brand creating footwear for such prominent women as Marilyn Monroe, Although Marilyn Monroe was in no way a fashion addict, she adored Ferragamo’s shoes, ordering multiple pairs of the same three-inch heel court shoe with a specially patented half-wood half-metal stiletto. In 2013, the Brand to whom Norma Jean Baker had been so faithful, staged a special exhibition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her death. Eva Peron and the Maharani of Cooch Behar. One of his most notable masterpieces is the “Rainbow Shoe”, a platform sandal created for American performer Judy Garland as a tribute to the song “Over the Rainbow” she sings in the 1939 film “Wizard of Oz”.
Salvatore Ferragamo’s contribution to footwear design was his unique use of new materials such as cork and crocodile, kangaroo and fish skin. After his death, his widow Wanda as well as his 6 children and grandchildren took up the eponymous firm that to this day designs luxury shoes, bags, eyewear, silk accessories, watches, perfumes and ready-to-wear clothes. A museum dedicated to his life’s work, housing over 10,000 pairs of shoes is open in central Florence while the Ferragamo Foundation aims at instructing young talent in the ways paved by the Italian master.
THE TREE OF ALL FRUITS
The raffia fiber which was used to weave these Ferragamo shoes comes from a tree called Raphia, native to Central Africa and Madagascar. Raphia farinifera occurs in lowland riparian and swamp forest, also around human habitations and cultivated locations, on stream banks and other moist situations at altitudes of 50–1000 m.
Raffia tree leaves can reach up to 15 meters in length but only the underside of the young and tender leaflets is used. Their membrane stripped; it is peeled into fibers of about a meter’s length. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and West Africa these fibers are woven into textiles, while in Uganda they are used in the creation of coiled bowls. Other uses of raffia include twine, rope, mats and placemats, hats and, of course, skimmer shoes.
.OF SHOES AND SEABIRDS
Which brings us to the pair at hand. Skimmers are seabirds related to the terns that use their unique knife-like lower mandible to slice the water’s surface while flying low.
The fast, long winged skimmer can therefore pick up any fish too slow to dart away, all in a graceful and easy manner. Just like their animal equivalents, skimmer flats advertise comfort, flexibility and most importantly, style to those who need to enjoy them. But who wouldn’t want to go about their leisure trip or vacation as lightly as a seabird speeding effortlessly through the foam?