Salvatore Ferragamo is one of the most distinguished companies in the Italian fashion industry.  The company is headquartered in the historical Palazzo Spini Feroni in Florence, Italy, which also houses the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum, where original models of the shoes that made the company famous are exhibited in rotation.

Born in 1898 in Bonito, 100 km. From Naples, the young Salvatore Farrago aspired to ennoble shoemaking through a search for functional and aesthetic perfection.  He started on his famous adventure at the age of 11 years, as apprentice of a fashionable Neapolitan shoemaker.  At age 13, he created his first ladies’ custom made shoes.  

Aware that there was little for him to learn in Bonito, the ambitious Salvatore moved to America in 1914.  By the mid-50’s, he found himself creating shoes for the first years of the cinema:  cowboy boots, Roman or Egyptian sandals, and then finally, elegant models for the great divas of the era who started to wear his shoes off the set.  

Salvatore’s shoes contributed to women’s liberation.  At a time when skirts went shorter, and stockings enhanced the legs, Salvatore opened up and lowered the lines of shoes and created the first sandals.  He created a fashion trend among the most elegant ladies.  

His shoes are comfortable and robust.  They respect natural balances, without, ever being orthopedic.  These come from his study of human anatomy at the University of Los Angeles where he discovered that the entire weight of the body rests on the arch of the foot, and that this must be correctly supported.  His attendance at the faculty of Chemical Engineering also helped him discover new ways of treating skins and working with different materials.

Not long after, he returned to Italy and established himself in Florence, a city that was rich with skilled craftsmen.  Here he opened his first shop.  

Salvatore died in 1960.  His wife and his daughter, Fiamma, carried forward his legacy.  Soon, Fiamma earned recognition on her own as a shoemaker and became responsible for the expansion of the company’s production.  She upheld her father’s principles--tradition, quality and innovation—and fulfilled his dream of transforming Salvatore Ferragamo into an international fashion house which clothes men and women from head to toe.  Today, Salvatore Ferragamo shoes, clothing, handbags, a wide range of accessories in silk and leather, fragrances, and eyewear are sold through free-standing shops, shop-in-shop and corner stores, and sales points in Europe, America, Middle and Far East, Australia and other parts of the world.