Ferragamo’s ‘Gancini’ emblem – a D-shaped hooked clasp reminiscent of an equestrian horse bit – was originally inspired by the wrought-iron gates of Florence’s 13th-century Palazzo Spini Feroni, the location of the Italian house’s first workshop.
In the years since, it has been riffed upon by the designers that have come in house founder Salvatore Ferragamo’s wake, including recently installed British creative director Maximilian Davis who reimagined the emblem as the vertiginous heel for a mule, one of his first pieces of footwear for the house.
Ferragamo’s Gancini-soled sneakers for S/S 2023
In any of its iterations, it is a motif synonymous with Ferragamo’s legacy of Italian luxury and craft, honed since the shoemaker’s early days in Hollywood in the 1910s and early 1920s – in his lifetime he would create footwear for Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland, among others – before founding the eponymous house in Florence in 1927.
The Gancini emblem also features in Ferragamo’s latest release – a new pair of sneakers, which grows the evolving sportswear-inspired footwear offering from the house. Here, it appears as a series of three Gancini-shaped tubular elements which form the sole of the sneaker.
Not only for aesthetics, the unique design also gives the sneaker its signature bounce; ‘the contrast of solids and voids in the sole enhances cushioning and comfort,’ say Ferragamo. Other materials in the sneaker combine the ‘soft and the hard-working’ with technical stretch knit, nubuck and split leather.
Available in an array of monochrome tones, looping laces, hand-stitched details, and the Ferragamo label stamped on the sole complete the sneaker’s design. It makes for a marriage of the house’s past and present – ‘infusing the quality of tradition into the agility of the now’.
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