These sculptural-soled Ferragamo sneakers marry the Italian house’s past and present
For S/S 2023, Ferragamo has revealed a new pair of men’s and women’s sneakers featuring the Italian house’s historic Gancini emblem embedded into the uniquely designed sole
![A red Ferragamo sneaker worn with all-red outfit](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/sJenLVEs92aBARKFjP8xrB-415-80.jpg)
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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Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.
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