Ferragamo celebrations, Shanghai

Luxury fashion brands don’t like to celebrate milestone birthdays with just a big cake and a bunch of flowers. No, reaching the dizzy heights of 80 as Salvatore Ferragamo does this year, calls for a proper celebration. And nobody could accuse the Ferragamo crowd of not pulling out all the stops for their anniversary celebration in Shanghai. 'My family and I chose China, and specifically Shanghai, to celebrate the company’s eightieth anniversary given the city’s rich history and traditions,' explained the wife of the late Salvatore, Wanda Ferragamo, whose children and grandchildren were there throughout to ensure everything was fittingly luxurious.

Click here to see pictures of the celebrations

Celebrations kicked-off on 27th March with the launch of ‘Salvatore Ferragamo Timepieces’ watch collection – the brand’s latest join venture. This was followed by a cocktail dinner at the residence of Pearl Lam, owner of Contrasts Gallery and renowned socialite on the Shanghai cultural circuit.

The official anniversary retrospective exhibition, ‘Salvatore Ferragamo Evolving Legend 1928-2008’ opened on the 28th at Shanghai's MoCA. It is the first exhibition to chart the history of the brand, not just the man himself, as the permanent Salvatore Ferragamo Museum in Florence focuses on. Alongside a comprehensive timeline of seminal shoe designs from the brand’s archive, the exhibition also included a mock-up of Ferragamo’s Hollywood shoe store, ‘The Hollywood Boot Shop’ together with a traditional artisanal cobbler and bag maker, making shoes and bags in front of passers by.

The focal point of the celebrations was the Autumn/Winter combined men’s and women’s fashion show at the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal, framed with a spectacular performance by ballet dancer extraordinaire, Roberto Bolle. Once proceedings were over, the young and beautiful let their hair down at the same venue for a night of indulgence that rounded off the occasion. And everyone agreed that the humble man who made his name designing shoes for Hollywood stars would very definitely have approved...

31 March 2008 | Fashion