Elegant, refined, superb. After all, Florence is a diva, always in the spotlight, sought after by the whole world. Anything can be forgiven to a city where art is everywhere. It pours out of museums and galleries and into the streets, between medieval houses, the bossage of magnificent buildings – a symbol of power and wealth – moldings, statues, covered bridges, gardens, domes and churches filled with treasures. But in Florence art also smells of leather. Its alleys and streets are often filled with the scent coming out of leather shops. Florentine leather making is an ancient art. At the end of the 13th century tanners, tradesmen and gilders already existed in the city. This industry has a long tradition, with the Arte dei Calzolai consortium set up in the 1500’s, which later created the university of the Maestri del Cuoiame. To take a closer look at the work of these master craftsmen, tourists can browse the workshops and artisan laboratories in the Santa Croce area, where the streets are named after this art from: Via delle Conce, Corso dei Tintori, Via dei Conciatori.

Salvatore Ferragamo’s story might well seem like a fairytale – and we like to think it is one. Born in 1898 in Irpinia, in a small town in the province of Avellino, he started working as an apprentice shoemaker as a young boy. A few years later, he opened his first store in Bonito, his hometown. In 1915, he left for the United States, taking with him his passion for shoes and his immense skill as a shoemaker. After a stop at his brother’s, in Boston, he moved to Santa Barbara, California in the early 1920s, where he studied human anatomy, chemical engineering and mathematics at university and opened a workshop for shoe repairs and custom-made shoes. Being in the right place at the right time is what happened to Salvatore Ferragamo: in a flourishing period for the film industry, he began making shoes for Hollywood sets and movie stars. After a short time, the press declared him “shoemaker of the stars”. In 1927, he decided to return to Italy, to the place that he felt suited him best: Florence, the city of artisan expertise. Success was just around the corner and although the economic crisis of 1929 made life difficult for Ferragamo, the recovery was quick.

In 1930, the futurist painter, Lucio Venna, collaborated on the company’s advertising campaign, producing some promotional posters, a leaflet, and creating the Ferragamo’s Creations Florence Italy” logo, where the designer’s surname is linked to the name of the city of Florence in black and white rectangle. The inference is explicit:  an artistically made shoe can only be produced in an art city. Once again, art and fashion overlap. In 1938, the brand’s great success enabled Ferragamo to buy the entire Palazzo Spini Feroni, which is still the company’s headquarters and museum. In the post-war period, Ferragamo’s shoes become the symbol of Italy’s recovery, of a free country that was alive and skilled. One great invention followed another as did success: the ballet flat with the shell-shaped sole, the cork wedge, stiletto heels reinforced with metal, the invisible sandal, and the gold sandal. After his death in 1960, the Ferragamo family carried on the company with the same dedication, turning it an international player for shoes and clothing. The Salvatore Ferragamo Museum, established in 1995, is the place to find out about the history and the secrets of a brand that evokes Italian style and expertise around the world. It hosts a collection of shoes that documents the evolution of the brand, from the designer’s pioneering inventions to the most recent experiments around sustainability.

Ferragamo is one of the few brands that has ridden the wave of sustainability out of awareness, rather than to follow a trend. Ferragamo himself began experimenting with sustainability as early as the 1930s with alternative materials such as hemp, candy paper and fish skin. In 1936, when the fascist policy of economic self-sufficiency made sourcing leather and metal almost inaccessible, Ferragamo imported cork from Sardinia and patented his famous wedge.

Environmental sustainability has always been a theme of paramount importance for the Florentine fashion house. Its participation in various initiatives is a testament to this commitment. 2016 saw the launch of the womenswear capsule collection in collaboration with Orange Fiber, a company owned by two young women from Sicily that makes vitamin yarns from citrus by-products. In 2018, Salvatore Ferragamo joined the United Nation Global Impact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, which invites companies to follow shared universal strategies and principles around human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. The fashion house has been part of the Fashion Pact since 2019, which brings together 32 leading fashion and textile companies committed to reducing their environmental impact through a series of common goals: halting global warming, restoring biodiversity and protecting the oceans. Lastly, the brand, remaining faithful to the philosophy of its founder, has always remained a proud defender of the Made in Italy brand – the seal that makes our tradition of quality production unique – keeping all production in Italy. Its responsible management, that safeguards an exceptional industrial, social, and cultural heritage, is documented in in the museum.

Among the many wonders Florence has to offer, there are several that can be found within a short distance of the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum. One is the Roberto Casamonti Collection. Located inside Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, it hosts a century’s worth of contemporary art with masterpieces by Boccioni, Modigliani, Picasso, Warhol, Fontana, Hering and Basquiat, just to name a few. A little further on is Piazza Santa Trinità with the Basilica of the same name with its impressive stone facade: one of the first examples of Gothic architecture in Florence, it was built in the second half of the 11th century and rebuilt in the 14th century. Palazzo Strozzi, a perfect example of a Renaissance stately home, is one of the best exhibition spaces in Italy. Always buzzing with activity, art exhibitions and events of great appeal alternate in its courtyards and its rooms. Since 1988, the former church of S. Pancrazio, deconsecrated in 1808, has hosted the Marino Marini Museum, where over 200 works form the Pistoia-born painter and sculptor are conserved. In Piazza Santa Maria Novella, in the ancient Spedale di San Paolo, used in the 18th century by the Leopoldine schools for poor girls, is Florence’s Museo Novecento, with 15 exhibition spaces and 300 works of art. Finally, the original Orsanmichele church, built in what was once a loggia for the grain market is also worth a visit. Built in 1284, burned down, rebuilt between 1337 and 1349, then finally transformed and extended between 1367 and 1380, it became the current Orsanmichele (S. Michele in Orto), the church of the Liberal Arts. On the upper floors of the building is its museum, which preserves many of the original sculptures depicting the patron saints of the arts, which once adorned the church’s tabernacles.

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