MUSEO SALVATORE FERRAGAMO

When Salvatore Ferragamo (1898–1960), one of the leading lights of Made in Italy, went to live in California taking with him his passion for creating shoes with a high degree of craftsmanship, he found work in the film industry.

The collection of shoes in the museum spans his entire career from 1927 to 1960, and also includes shoes made after Ferragamo’s death right up to the present. Some models document the relationship with artists of the time, such as the Futurist Lucio Venna, who created the renowned Ferragamo label. Others are testimony to the constant search for the perfect fit and the invention of constructions and materials, from the celebrated “wedge heel” in cork, patented in 1936 and immediately copied throughout the world, to the uppers in raffia or cellophane, or the sweetie papers adopted during the Second World War.

Then there were the shoes created for Hollywood film stars, from Marilyn Monroe to Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, Anna Magnani, Paulette Goddard, and Sophia Loren, who came to Palazzo Spini Feroni in the 1950s for their shoes. The foundation and the museum have a rich and varied programme of exhibitions.