#salvatore ferragamo: shoemaker of dreams

[cancmbyn]

So as faithful fiction readers know, I haven’t written anything in a long time…

To get out of this drought, I decided to write a movie review. Not exactly fiction, but still writing. In my book that counts as progress!

If you are interested, please check out Bones and All and Salvatore: A queer perspective on the latest from Luca Guadagnino.

There ARE spoilers from both films in my review, so don’t read if you haven’t seen BAA.

Thanks, in advance, for your support! 💜

[brian-in-finance]

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In the early 20th century, impoverished teenage Italian cobbler Salvatore Ferragamo sailed from Naples to America to seek a better life. He settled in Southern California, and became Hollywood's go-to shoemaker during the silent era. In 1927, he returned to Italy and founded in Florence his namesake luxury brand. This feature-length documentary recounts his adventures. IMDb

Remember… Shoemaker of Dreams premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 5 September 2020. Sony Pictures Classics acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film (excluding Italy) and released the film in the United States on 4 November 2022.

[fashionbyf]

What fashion makes the heritage cut? What Shoemaker of Dreams and even the Walter Albini relaunch indicates…

The Salvatore Ferragamo documentary Shoemaker of Dreams directed by Luca Guadagnino is finally available on AppleTV and, if you missed it in theaters or at other screenings in Italy since its first premieres in 2021, this is the time to watch it. Mix yourself an Aperol Spritz, imagine you’re at Procacci or Obika on Via Tornabuoni (unfortunately the former Anglo-American haunt featured in Tea with Mussolini, Doney’s, closed years ago…) and immerse yourself in the story of this Southern Italian immigrant to the United States who revolutionized shoes and shoe-making for Florentines and the wider world. Full of personal insights, the documentary also features Salvatore Ferragamo’s own voice taken from 1955 recordings of his Memoirs and interviews with Australian TV outlets in 1958. This is an especially moving part of the documentary because Salvatore Ferragamo’s voice, in some ways, perfectly encapsulates the context of the cultural moments in which he participated beyond fashion. Heritage, we might say, before heritage. These moments include Italians coming to the United States in the early 20th century with the requisite $20 entrance fee to create new lives and new identities for themselves, the beginnings of the movie industry in Santa Barbara in all its creativity and its decampment to Hollywood, and the determination of entrepreneurs to succeed against all odds and Florentine expectations, even in a complex early 20th century Italy facing economic sanctions.

But, even more than that, the documentary is a testament to one man’s vision of shoes, from how they should be made, to the creativity they can embody and the messages they can impart. And this vision, on display more than 100 years later, is perhaps the most striking thing about the documentary because the vision highlights how we can project the present into the future and extend a role to the past in our visions of the present. Speaking after the bankruptcy of his business in 1933, Ferragamo is quoted in the documentary

For the first time in my life, I started to look back over the shoulder of my past. As a flash, it all seemed to see many things which I had, until then, never seen before. I looked forward to my future.

Looking to our past, even as we craft our personal narratives, and spotting what matters and what doesn’t, and how to use that for the benefit of our present and our future, is a central question at the heart of heritage.

In fashion, a field defined by its timeliness (as Saviolo and Corbellini in particular describe it), spotting what will matter over time is an endeavor. But, as time passes, time acts almost as a sieve, filtering out what matters and what doesn’t, what is timeless and what is timely for present generations. The results of the application of time can be unexpected (would you have thought that thinly rectangular sunglasses, low rise pants and other silhouettes from the late nineties and early noughties would be back in fashion?). The results can also be unexpected but somewhat pre-identifiable, driven by marketing, important brand anniversaries, and brand mythmaking as much as by nostalgia and/or individual and collective tastes (Exhibit A: the resurgence of the Fendi Baguette bag). Designers often play an important role in the curation of the past, as Maximilian Davis is doing at Ferragamo now- citing to Ferragamo’s gold sandal and building on the F heel, among other design details.

The pull between the past and the present, what we might term a battle for the future of fashion- heritage- also depends on the law. And this is also on display in Shoemaker of Dreams. One of the primary pieces of evidence shown during the documentary as a testament to Ferragamo’s vision are the multitude of patents he had on the procedures for his shoe designs, the processes to make them, and their look (the Ferragamo Museum also staged an insightful exhibit on these patents in 2004).  What we can take from the past and what we can re-use often depends on whether someone has a right to control a production, the use of a design, its reproduction and even the associations we make and have with that design. Some of the most insightful of Ferragamo’s creations (many reproduced ingeniously as part of the Ferragamo’s Creations line) are the fruit of others’ control of raw materials (or lack thereof), his own patents which reserved control over specific parts to Ferragamo himself for a time, the matching of tradition and innovation, and the inspiration that came from themes, recalling, and remembering.  While the documentary uses the Invisible Sandal (one of the most evocative examples I’ve explored extensively in other work) and the caged heel, the facts surrounding Ferragamo’s wedge made with cork are particularly evocative of the numerous threads that make up the design of one of his shoes. In his Memoirs, Ferragamo details how, after designing them years before, he discovered that a version of wedge soles had been worn centuries before thanks to an archeological excavation at Villa di Boccaccio outside Florence in 1950. As Ferragamo shares in another part of the documentary

I have not followed any master. I have not followed any school. Where have I learned all that I know? I had a clear vision that my work had never been done before. I have done it. Where? I do not know. But everything that I have done since my boyhood time, it has been work which came back to me. All I have to do while I work is to sit down and recall what I know about this work and do it again.

Knowing what fashion heritage is years later, what heritage makes the cut, is often a product of vision and, as Ferragamo’s work shows, of the tools and instruments that support that vision, from patents to trademarks, and even a robust public domain and other doctrines that allow for re-mixing, re-use, and commentary. As time goes on, curation and preservation, saving the vision and the tools and instruments that support that vision, are also central to identifying what is fashion heritage and how it can impact our fashion today. This is why archives themselves are also important for making the heritage cut.

And the acquiring of rights and archives to support a contemporary vision is what we see happening today with the revival of heritage brands, like that of the incredibly prescient Walter Albini, who, as a designer, preceded Giorgio Armani in his impact on Italian ready-to-wear and the concept of Milanese fashion. The announcement of the revival of the Walter Albini brand noted that the investment company that is relaunching it acquired the designer’s “intellectual property and archives”, including the acquisition of a large tangible archive of “garments, costume jewellery, drawings, photographs, and other memorabilia” from Dr. Barbara Curti, who is listed as Chief Memory Officer of the Walter Albini Archive. While we will have to see what the vision for a 21st century Walter Albini line is, the acquisition of the previous brand’s intellectual property and archives are fundamental first steps to identifying what fashion heritage has made the cut for our present times.

References and Further Readings

https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gen-z-y2k-millennial-90s-fashion-nostalgia

https://tv.apple.com/ca/movie/salvatore-ferragamo-the-shoemaker-of-dreams/umc.cmc.13bohnm0ogsk0g6wdwlftjqud

https://www.wsj.com/articles/its-happening-again-the-return-of-low-rise-jeans-d8efc3f0

The Shoemaker of Dreams by Salvatore Ferragamo (in the Italian version, pages 131-35 for the story of the cork wedge)

https://academic.oup.com/jiplp/article/17/11/891/6852707

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2023-ready-to-wear/salvatore-ferragamo

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2023-ready-to-wear/salvatore-ferragamo

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/UQWRSqxpWZsfIg?hl=it

https://cardozoaelj.com/fashions-brand-heritage-cultural-heritage-and-the-piracy-paradox/

https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles/222/

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/luxury/walter-albini-relaunch-confirmed/

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/09/24/the-piracy-paradox

https://www.nyulawreview.org/issues/volume-97-number-2/memes-on-memes-and-the-new-creativity/

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-of-intellectual-property-in-50-objects/0737F2B342A61E0E90B0A98288E412C3

https://www.skira.net/books/le-leggi-della-moda/

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/paris-capital-of-fashion-9781350102965/

https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/convention-safeguarding-intangible-cultural-heritage

https://www.instagram.com/walteralbini_officialarchive/

https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=alr

https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/480/

Images from 

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2023-ready-to-wear/salvatore-ferragamo/slideshow/details#77

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2023-ready-to-wear/salvatore-ferragamo/slideshow/details#57

https://mostra1972.unipr.it/s/1972_mostra_en/page/designer_albini

https://www.ferragamo.com/creations/en/eur

[gatabella]

"…as we left the salon at the conclusion of her visit, crowds surged forward around her car and cameramen rushed to take pictures. I was annoyed at the intrusion, but not Miss Garbo. She is a princess at heart. She merely bent her head to indicate that she did not desire to be photographed and climbed into her car. "

-Salvatore Ferragamo, Shoemaker of Dreams, 1957

[malina-6886]

ATL: Many people were introduced to Timothée Chalamet in your film Call Me By Your Name, and he has really evolved as an actor since then. Working with him again, did you notice any changes in him now that he’s older and more experienced?

Guadagnino: I found the beauty of growing up. I found the beauty of the transformation. I saw in him the humbleness and the humility of someone who [has] not [taken] for granted the incredible and beautiful success he got, but actually treasures it as a beautiful way for him to challenge himself more and more, to really challenge himself to do things that are, for him, strong and meaningful and powerful. That is what I love about him. He’s kept being very humble and very focused and very driven by the possibility that his position and his interest in the craft gives him to really make special things, not average things.

[sprocketedsources]

SPROCKETED SOURCES: SHOES AND MOVIES.

Luca Guadagnino's  2020 Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams is a handsome documentary which  curiously is interesting on movies and shoes but dips out on bringing its subject to life.

Salvatore Ferragamo certainly had quite a life. One of family of fourteen, he decided as a child, he wanted to be a shoemaker, though this was the lowest rung on the social ladder in Bonito his Sicilian home village, from which he moved to Florence, Naples and then to the 1907 USA where he rejected factory production by the thousands of shoes lacking the comfort of his own hand made work.  He studied anatomy in medical school for this. He participated in the shift from Santa Barbara to Hollywood by the now forgotten American Film Corporation.

Ferragamo's life provided the relevant quota of  drama - crossing the globe in his teens, a car accident which had him designing and patenting a splint for his smashed leg. (He ran up a series of notable patents - something alien to the sharing of knowledge in his origin culture). Ferragamo mixed with Valentino, Gloria Swanson and Cecil B. De Mille (“If cowboys had boots like these the West would have been settled much  quicker”), being wiped out in the Stock Market Crash and, with devoted staff entering into a potentially ruinous deal, while still bankrupt, to set up again in his historic building. He rolled through  the rise and fall of Mussolini  and two world wars.

Fairbanks’ Pixie Boots from the Thief of Bagdad (most of which he did barefoot) and Swanson’s sex-worker bow foot wear for Sadie Thompson get special attention. There’s a surprisingly involving description of the construction of his arch supporting soles and the innovative use of un-disguised nylon and cork materials. We don't get any mention of cost or durability. It's another look into the Hollywood lives of the rich and famous. The people who had their homes styled by Billy Haines walked round them in Ferrigamo shoes.

The documentary has a great range of source footage - the founders setting up United Artists where only Griffith is taking interest in the surroundings, clips from The Covered Wagon, the silent 10 Commandments,  Charles Mintz’ 1935 The Shoemaker & the Elves, Italian historical  actuality, Ferragamo’s own grainy B&W 8mm. home movies, which they allow to jump frames or go out of rack, a Pez digital animation, along with stills of Ferragamo handling the feet of glamour stars or surrounded by the lasts of famous people's feet - Greta Garbo, Claire Booth Luce, Gloria Swanson, Ingrid Bergman Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren. He seems to have given up on men’s footwear.

The interviews let it down, fashion pundits and family, even with glimpses of Martin Scorsese and Jay Weissberg to comment the movie connection. Adding echo to the track is an interesting piece of manipulation.

Curiously the high point is the artizanal hand making of a Ferrigamo shoe, which we’ve already seen in the opening, with the family material and digital shoe ballet coming as an anti-climax.

Director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, the new Suspiria) has still shown a firmer grip on the documentary form than most fiction makers taking it on. His film has the variety and hints of significance (labor relations, the shoemaker in legend) that sustain it for most of a hundred and sixteen minutes. However, possibly due to the involvement of his heirs in the production, Ferragamo himself remains irritatingly two dimensional.

It would be interesting to know why It has attracted more attention than other current non fiction

Barrie Pattison.

[movienation]

Documentary Review -- "Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams"

Documentary Review — “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams”

An iconic haute couture footwear brand’s origin story is told in sometimes inspiring strokes in “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams,” Luca Guadagnino’s story of the life and work of Salvatore Ferragamo. Fashionistas, fashion historians, film historians, modern shoe icon Manolo Blahnik, Ferragamo and family members tell his tale, sing his praises and marvel at his many innovations, which…

[sandrazayres]

(Abre 13./10) Festival Docs Moda l Ferragamo, Balenciaga, William Klein l inéditos l presencial em SP e gratuito!

PROGRAMAÇÃO FEED DOG BRASIL 2022: ESPAÇO ITAÚ DE CINEMA AUGUSTA DIA 13/10 – QUINTA-FEIRA 20h_Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams ( Sessão de Abertura para convidados) Luca Guadagnino | Itália |2021 | 120’ No início do século XX, o sapateiro italiano Salvatore Ferragamo navegou de Nápoles para a América para buscar uma vida melhor. Ele se estabeleceu no sul da Califórnia e acabou tornando-se o…

[leanpick]

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams: Call My by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino explores fashion icon Ferragamo

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams: Call My by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino explores fashion icon Ferragamo

The most surprising thing about Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino’s documentary about footwear fashion god-figure Salvatore Ferragamo is how conventional it is. With talking heads, archival footage, a narrator (Michael Stuhlbarg) and a linear narrative, Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams is straightforward almost to a fault. It’s unexpected because this is the same director who has previously given us…

[room42]

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams delves into the rags to riches life of the shoemaker to the stars

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams delves into the rags to riches life of the shoemaker to the stars

If you measured the legacy of Salvatore Ferragamo in shoe sizes, the Italian fashion giant’s impact would be bigger than the size 23 Reebook Shaq Attaq boot of former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq, coincidentally, like Ferragamo, did his best work in Los Angeles, only the basketballer did it with the Lakers and the Italian shoemaker did it with the early stars of Hollywood, after moving to…

[oanamaria-blog]

Ferragamo, Salvatore

Born: Bonito, Italy, 1898

Died: Fiumetto, Italy, 1960

Salvatore Ferragamo’s supremacy in making innovative shoe shape was a product of his apprenticeship with a craftsman in his native Italy. In 1923 he emigrated to America and opened a shoe shop in Santa Barbara, California, making couture shoes. His client list included Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, the Duchess of Windsor and Eva Perón.…

[yes-svetlana-world]

Luca Guadagnino’s latest documentary feature "Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams" is a loving salute to fashion icon Salvatore Ferragamo. Exclusively on IndieWire, watch the trailer for the film here: https://bit.ly/3AMmbmf

by IndieWire

@IndieWire

[askfashionisto]

Listen to the audio version of the articleFor more than 50 years he directed the Florentine company Ferragamo, transforming it from an artisan laboratory of high-quality women's shoes into one of the most prestigious Italian fashion brands, spread all over the world. However, few know the entrepreneurial figure of Wanda Miletti, widowed by the "shoemaker to the stars" Salvatore Ferragamo in 1960, when she was 39 years old and had six children (the youngest being three years old), and became -without experience and without know something about administration, management, style, production and sales - a silent but tenacious company leader, affectionate but firm, anchored in family values ​​but open to change. Alone, with the help of four historical collaborators, Wanda built an empire and passed it on to her children to continue the dream of her creative and innovative husband who had made his fortune in America.“Women in balance”, tells Florencia the vision of Wanda Ferragamo Photo gallery29 photosView Wanda Miletti Ferragamo died in 2018, at the age of 96. Now the Ferragamo Museum, which she wanted and created in the Palazzo Feroni Spini on the banks of the Arno, where the company is headquartered, dedicates a commemorative exhibition to her, curated by Stefania Ricci and Elvira Valleri, entitled "Women in Balance" and referring to the decade 1955-1965. The balance is that of family and work, which Wanda stubbornly pursued but which still remains a mirage for many Italian women. «When I started working -she says Wanda- in Italy there were not many women in charge of companies. Today is different, and I am happy about it, although I am aware of what this implies. All women work, except that some do their work outside the home.The exhibition focuses on the late fifties and early sixties to tell how the family, work (with the arrival of professions and machines), consumption (with the arrival of household appliances), changed in that period , cinema, and how young women have changed. , as Wanda has always had a special focus on young people (and her 23 grandchildren). Along with the world of Wanda Ferragamo, represented by the reproduction of her office, there are the stories of other women who have combined the affirmation of her personality with family affections. Because the family, for Wanda, has always been the center of life.

[sandrazayres]

(Abre 13./10) Festival Docs Moda l Ferragamo, Balenciaga, William Klein l inéditos l presencial em SP e gratuito!

PROGRAMAÇÃO FEED DOG BRASIL 2022: ESPAÇO ITAÚ DE CINEMA AUGUSTA DIA 13/10 – QUINTA-FEIRA 20h_Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams ( Sessão de Abertura para convidados) Luca Guadagnino | Itália |2021 | 120’ No início do século XX, o sapateiro italiano Salvatore Ferragamo navegou de Nápoles para a América para buscar uma vida melhor. Ele se estabeleceu no sul da Califórnia e acabou tornando-se o…

[nigtusuazu1972]

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