Salvatore Ferragamo who was born in Bonito, Italy on June 5, 1898, and died on August 7, 1960, was an Italian shoe designer and founder of luxury goods retailer Salvatore Ferragamo SpA. Ferragamo worked with many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, before returning to Italy and establishing a bespoke shoe company. The scientific approach and creative power towards shoes give birth to many innovations such as shoe wedges and cage shoes.
Ferragamo was born from a poor family in Bonito and is the eleventh child of 14 children. After making the first pair of shoes for him and a pair of high heels at the age of nine, the young Salvatore decided that he had found his love which was the love for shoes.
Salvatore Ferragamo died in 1960 at the age of 62, but his name remains alive as an international company, which has expanded its operations including luxury shoes, bags, glasses, accessories made of silk, watches, perfumes, and ready-to-wear clothing lines. When he died, his wife Wanda and then their six children, Fiamma, Giovanna, Fulvia, Ferruccio, Massimo, and Leonardo continue ran his father’s company.
His most famous discoveries were the “Cage Heel” and Fiamma, Salvatore’s oldest daughter who died in 1998 appeared with “Vara pump” shoes in 1978. A museum dedicated to life and Ferragamo works opened at the Palazzo Spini Feroni in 1995.
In March 2013, the Ferragamo fashion house, Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A., founded the Ferragamo Foundation in Florence. This foundation was formed to foster young fashion designers, based on the idea of Salvatore Ferragamo
Orange Fiber Collection from Salvatore Ferragamo
Faithful to their motto, “responsible passion”, Ferragamo is the first fashion house to use Fiber cloth made of orange. This highly anticipated collaboration was born from a shared desire for creative innovation, sustainable design, and the beloved heritage of Italian excellence.
This brand tried to retrace the steps of its founders in developing collections with innovative materials. The Florence-based company launched a collection of capsules made with Orange Fiber and the time coincided with the 47th edition of Earth Day on April 22 last year. Patented Orange Fiber is the world’s first fabric made from citrus fruits.
Ferragamo has tried to patent the procedure for making a substitute for raffia. They collaborated with the Orange Fiber company, an Italian company that made fabric from the remaining waste from orange juice. It seeks to end 70,000 tons of citrus waste produced in Italy each year. For this project, the company only uses fabrics from nature and is the first brand to use Orange Fiber that looks and feels like silk.
Salvatore Ferragamo and Sustainable Lifestyle
This brand is committed to bringing sustainable practices to the fashion industry and forming a new concept of luxury 3.0. This method is a contemporary way to build an ethical and sustainable lifestyle, which considers the future and most importantly, the future of our shared world.
Although the use of this innovation is not cheap, this innovative process shows us the useful things that can be done with the food waste that we produce every day. Of course, we also hope, other fashion brands will follow in the footsteps of the collaboration from Salvatore Ferragamo and Orange Fiber.
