Earlier this month, my mom and I took a weekend trip to Florence and paid a highly anticipated visit to the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum. A shoe lover's haven, the museum houses hundreds of shoes spanning the shoemaker's career in Italy from 1927-1960. Born in 1898, Ferragamo and his family emigrated to the US in 1914. In 1923, he opened the Hollywood Boot Shop in Beverly Hills, selling custom-made shoes to Hollywood's glitterati, which helped him garner the nicknames "shoemaker to the stars" and "shoemaker of dreams." After returning to Italy in 1927, he incorporated his namesake company in Florence, planting the seed for his shoe empire built on his innovative, avant garde designs and creative use of materials.
The company is one of a handful of luxury companies left where the founding family still plays an active role in the business and owns a majority of the shares. On June 29, Salvatore Ferragamo Italia S.p.A. went public in Milan, and 25% of the company was sold for 344 million EUR ($487 million). The proceeds will be used to help global expansion in emerging markets.
Aside from my mom's looks, I also inherited her love for Ferragamo shoes. The collections embody everything I'm looking for in shoes -- comfort, classic elegance, and edgy sophistication. With that, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the Palazzo Spini Feroni HQ and flagship (unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the museum).
