Beauty How I fell in love with my first Ferragamos
The quality of leather and the workmanship make each shoe perfect. That is real luxury
WOMEN are never really just “bag” people. While most prefer bags to shoes (quite practical, actually, because shoes get more in contact with dirt in general), they still can’t resist a good pair or two of shoes. Or more.
I confess to being such a woman. In fact, here’s something you might not have known about me: I was actually a shoe lover first and a bag hag second.
My love for shoes was nowhere near Imeldific proportions, but I once had a pretty good collection, which I had somehow amassed while working in Hong Kong. And then I got pregnant and my feet grew. Can you imagine having to say goodbye to those shoes that no longer fit? That was about the time I decided that bags should take precedence over shoes.
But now? A confession: My shoe love is back—and it’s now on a par with my love for bags!
Let me tell you how my love for shoes began. It all started with a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo signature ribbon court shoes from my mother. When I received a pair, those pumps were all the rage. It was actually the beginning of the designer merchandise revolution—at least I thought so, here in the Philippines.
I still remember passing by the Ferragamo boutique with my mother on several occasions to find women buying either the ribbon shoes, ribbon bags or those grosgrain ribbon head bands. For me then, it was really all about the shoes.
It was an honor to have been invited to Florence to visit the Ferragamo Museo, Palazzo Spini Feroni, and the Ferragamo shoe factory just before fashion week in Milan began. Going there was like paying homage to what ignited my love affair with shoes.
With the private tour, I was able to enjoy the history of Salvatore Ferragamo’s beginnings as a shoemaker, his work in those succeeding years, and the 14,000 or so shoes which are already properly archived.
Shoemaker to the stars
Ferragamo’s fate was sealed when he made shoes for his sister’s confirmation. He moved to the United States and on to Hollywood from Santa Barbara, where he began designing shoes for actresses in the cinema. It wasn’t long after that he became known for his made-tomeasure footwear, earning him that title “shoemaker to the stars.”
Ferragamo furthered his interest in footwear by taking anatomy classes at the University of California to scientifically understand the foot, which in turn allowed him to make better, more comfortable shoes. He was ahead of his time, and was really a footwear genius.
Ferragamo is not pushing itself as a fashion company, although it is clear that shoe fashion today has looked to and tak- en inspiration from a lot of Ferragamo’s earlier designs.
At the shoe factory where I met Stefano Fiordi, the oldest shoemaker in the company who also happens to head the footwear production, I realized Ferragamo was about luxury above all else. Stefano showed me how to make a shoe, from the hand-cutting of the leather upper right down to attaching the heels and soles.
The process is, indeed, laborious, because almost everything is handmade and there is little need for machines (just for reinforcing certain parts of the shoe).
After inspecting the shoes on the production floor, I noticed that special attention was really paid to each shoe. The quality of leather and the workmanship make each shoe perfect. That is real luxury.
I look back on the whole Florentine visit very fondly. I just checked my closet for my decade-old gancini loafers which, after a thorough inspection, are still “alive” and well today.
I realized now that I saved those shoes for a reason—to remind me to invest in quality above all else when it came to shoes. While it would be fantastic to own the hottest pair of shoes for the season, it’s also always wiser to invest in a more classic pair that will not only be comfortable to wear, but will also last you a long time, even with constant wear.
Shoes are a good investment, though perhaps not in terms of resale, like designer bags. When you pay a premium price for a good pair of shoes, you should get good mileage out of them.
Dirt and all, as long as the footwear you purchased made you walk very comfortably, did not give your feet blisters, and lasted a long time, then you’ve made a good investment. And from my experience, Ferragamo is a shoe-in for a good footwear investment—pardon the pun!
Ingrid Chua- Go is the blogger behind www.thebaghagdiaries.com. Follow her on twitter at www.twitter.com/thebaghag