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| Ferragamo constantly tried to improve the design of his shoes |
This afternoon I watched
Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, a documentary about the Italian shoemaker's life and how he became world famous for his footwear.
I took the bus downtown to the Vancouver International Film Festival centre but it took much longer than I expected and I had to run to the theatre as soon as the bus arrived at my stop. Luckily the film had just started with the opening scene showing how the shoemakers in the company make shoes today -- partly by hand and using machines to make it physically easier to manufacture them.
Just as the opening scene ended, three people left the small theatre -- really bizarre. Then an older Asian woman arrived a few minutes later and decided to sit where those people had left -- a row behind me. She stood for more than two minutes slowly taking her long coat off, then constantly reached into her paper bag, crumpled it and then reopened it... many times throughout the movie... so annoying!
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| He was the shoemaker to the Hollywood stars |
The film used archival material that Salvatore Ferragamo himself had filmed of his family, and recordings of himself talking in English about his career and his thoughts about shoes and feet.
Ferragamo was known as the shoemaker who made comfortable beautiful shoes, and this all stemmed from his passion in making shoes from when he was a boy.
He was the 11th of 14 children in a small town called Bonito, where the closest major city was Naples on the coast. His parents own farmland which they tilled wheat and olives, but they lived next to a cobbler shop which fascinated the young Ferragamo at a very young age.
Whenever he could sneak into the shop he would sit on a stool and watch the shoemaker create shoes from scratch from the age of nine.
In the film he says even though his parents were farmers, they considered making shoes more lowly than their work and refused to let him learn the trade.
One day his two sisters were to have their confirmation and Ferragamo worked late at night fashioning shoes for them. He recalled at around 3am his father heard him hammering away and came downstairs to watch his son completely speechless.
The next day at confirmation, his two sisters' shoes were admired because they were new and that was when Ferragamo pleaded with his father to let him apprentice as a shoemaker and relented. Ferragamo, only around 11 years old went to Naples to study. He started off doing menial tasks like straightening nails and looking after the shoemaker's children, but with months he learned every aspect of the trade and worked there for a year.
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| His famous rainbow shoe inspired by Judy Garland |
He returned to Bonito and opened a tiny shop at his parents' house, and soon many women had their shoes made by "Salvatore the shoemaker".
When he was 16 he went by himself to Boston as his brother was there working in a shoe factory, where thousands of shoes were made each day. But this mortified Ferragamo who was stunned to see the shoes he would lovingly make by hand being churned out. Nevertheless it was something for him to learn from.
He and his two brothers went west to Santa Barbara, California which was actually where moving pictures were made before they moved to Hollywood. There, Ferragamo set up shop, making and repairing shoes, his brothers doing tailoring. He approached the movie studios and his first job was making cowboy boots, and later he made shoes for stars like Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Pola Negri and Douglas Fairbanks.
It was just as this time that these actors became famous in their own right -- they became American royalty and with incredible paycheques they splurged on nice things, including handmade shoes for themselves.
He also wanted to make his shoes more comfortable and in the evenings studied human anatomy at the University of Southern California. The instructor couldn't understand why Ferragamo was so interested in the feet and he explained he was a shoemaker. He soon learned how to shift the stress of the feet and put more support in the ankles so that his shoes were more comfortable.
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| Director Guadagnino used archival film |
But then an imposition of high taxes on the movie industry in Santa Barbara prompted the movie studios to move to Hollywood en masse and Ferragamo followed suit.
He drove back and forth between Santa Barbara and Hollywood to find a shop space, but one day he and his brothers got into a car accident, and one of them was killed, Ferragamo was seriously injured.
The film talks extensively about how this not only made him depressed, but also it was physically painful for his legs -- they had to be pulled to prevent his bones from shrinking. In his hospital bed he concocted his own contraption that would make it less painful and more effective. But it's not clear in the film if this was actually realised.
After he recovered, Ferragamo set up shop in Hollywood, taking over a two-storey shop and made it into a private place for his clients. But in 1927 he decided it was time to go home and he returned to Italy, in particular Florence to open his shop, a city full of artisans who could make his shoes. There are pictures of him in a suit showing his employees how to make the shoe.
His plan was to continue making shoes for his American clients, but a few years later the stock market crash and the ensuing Depression resulted in Ferragamo declaring bankruptcy. But he somehow persevered, continuing to make shoes to not only pay off his debts, but also be able to purchase a palazzo that was very expensive at the time.
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| The best-selling Vara shoes for Ferragamo |
Up until then he was not married and at the age of 42 he married the daughter of the Bonito mayor when she was 18 years old. They later went on to have six children.
The film only hints at his death but doesn't explain how he died. I had to look it up and he died of cancer in 1960 at the age of 62. About a year and a half before he died, he brought his eldest child, daughter Fiamma into the workshop to learn the trade.
His wife Wanda had never worked a day in her life, but after his death she took the reins of the company and Fiamma focused on designing shoes. Her most famous one was the Vara shoe, low-heeled, round tip with the signature bow and metal clip that every other female executive has worn for decades.
The film includes interviews with Ferragamo's children and some grandchildren, as well as designers like Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin, director Martin Scorsese and several film historians, fashion editors Grace Coddington and Suzy Menkes.
They marvel at not only the comfort of the shoes, but also how the shortage of leather in wartime forced Ferragamo to use cork for heels which resulted in the wedge heel, and innovative and colourful designs that made his shoes constantly appealing. He even made sandals out of fishing wire.
The documentary ends abruptly after showing extended scenes Ferragamo had shot of his young family at their villa and then appears a computer generated scene of Ferragamo shoes "dancing" in unison that seems so out of place and feels like a blatant advertisement.
I admit to owning several pairs of Ferragamo shoes over the years, hence my fascination for watching the film; but in the last 10 years or so the shoes they make are not comfortable anymore and I stopped buying them (they were too expensive too!). But that hasn't stopped me from appreciating what Ferragamo did for shoes and how he managed to pursue his passion in the most artistic and innovative way.
Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
110 mins
