Perfect pairing: Ferragamo’s first collaborative shoe collection
![Perfect pairing: Ferragamo’s first collaborative shoe collection](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/tUrePiLDa2rDjLr2tdku97-415-80.jpg)
James Ferragamo, director of women’s leather products at Ferragamo, enlisted innovative young shoe designer Edgardo Osorio to create a capsule collection inspired by the brand’s vast archive, aided by Ferragamo’s creative director Massimiliano Giornetti. The 14-piece collection includes heels featuring signature Ferragamo details, such as dots, cork and bows
There are practical reasons why iconic Italian leather goods brand Salvatore Ferragamo teamed up with Colombian-born, Florentine-based footwear designer Edgardo Osorio for a new capsule shoe collection. ‘He lives next door!’ laughs James Ferragamo, Salvatore’s grandson and director of the brand’s women’s leather goods. It’s true that both brands are situated on the same street in Florence, but the pairing, the first for Ferragamo, is aligned on a much deeper level.
Osorio, whose own Aquazzura label has shot to international hotness in just four years, started his career, at the age of 19, over a decade ago at Ferragamo’s footwear atelier, where he met Ferragamo’s current creative director Massimiliano Giornetti. The experience left an indelible impression on the designer. ‘There’s nothing like the Ferragamo archive,’ says Osorio of the 14,000 pairs of perfectly preserved shoes. ‘They have everything in there. He did everything. And he did it first.’ Indeed, Salvatore Ferragamo is the spiritual godfather of modern footwear. His inventions with innovative materials such as cork, jute, straw, cellophane and fishing line, as well as radical silhouettes such as massive platforms, were seismic back in the 1940s and continue to shake the catwalks today.
For the new 14-piece collection, Osorio plucked many of these groundbreaking elements from Ferragamo’s past but added elements of Latin exuberance. Ferragamo’s signature cork and polka dots are now incorporated into chunky mid-heel sandals. The brand’s famous bows have been repositioned as three metal sculptures on the back of stilettos, while wing details were taken from Ferragamo advertising campaign illustrations from the 1950s. Ferragamo’s most iconic shoe, the rainbow wedge, has been reinterpreted in charming dégradé encrusted stones.
Pulling in a foreign hired gun might be considered sacrilegious at the House of Ferragamo, but James Ferragamo insists the brand is ‘open-minded’. ‘Everybody contributes to fashion today,’ he says. ‘It’s not just one brand, one designer. Fashion is bigger than that.’
As originally featured in the December 2015 issue of Wallpaper* (W*201)
INFORMATION
For more information, visit Ferragamo’s website, or Aquazzura’s website
Still life photography: Joss McKinley
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
JJ Martin
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Inside John Lobb’s sumptuous new Kyoto store, housed in a traditional wooden ‘machiya’
John Lobb’s inviting new Teruhiro Yanagihara-designed Kyoto store is introduced with a series of images starring lauded Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda
By Jack Moss Published
-
‘Sensuous physicality’: Issey Miyake reveals barefoot sneaker collaboration with New Balance
The Issey Miyake x New Balance MT10O is based on minimalist running sneakers from the 2010s, designed to replicate the feeling of running barefoot
By Jack Moss Published
-
These gravity-defying Santoni heels are a sculptural wonder
A closer look at Santoni’s Victoria pumps, which are defined by the architectural rigour of their gently slanted heels – an ode to the heritage footwear brand’s roots in Le Marche, Italy
By Jack Moss Published
-
Best in shows: Wallpaper* picks S/S 2024’s standout looks
As part of Wallpaper’s Design Awards 2024 issue, we select the winning S/S 2024 runway collections – and their defining looks – at the start of a new season in style
By Jack Moss Published
-
Unconventional men’s tailoring to make an impression this winter
This winter’s men’s tailoring is defined by razor-sharp reinterpretations of classic silhouettes, designed to make you stand out over a celebratory season ahead
By Jack Moss Published
-
These top-handle bags are reinventing the classic accessory
From Prada to Hermès, these sleek top-handle bags riff on ladylike 1950s silhouettes in a way that’s anything but prim
By Jack Moss Published
-
These sculptural Ferragamo heels tell a story about the house’s history
Ferragamo’s historic ‘Gancini’ logo becomes the gravity-defying heel of the ‘Elina’ sandal, one of British creative director Maximilian Davis’ first footwear designs for the Florentine house
By Jack Moss Published
-
John Lobb’s ‘Cannon’ sneakers are an exercise in minimal design
John Lobb’s sleek ‘Cannon’ sneakers continue the British heritage shoemaker’s foray into sportier terrain – crafted with all the precision of its classic styles
By Jack Moss Published