Museo Salvatore FerragamoSanta Trinita
Salvatore Ferragamo 1898-1960
Retrospective on the shoemaker's life and work in nine sections, from the Hollywood Boot Shop to patents, materials and famous feet.
More in Florence
You meet his clients' wooden lasts, each a carved copy of one person's foot with the owner's name on it. Ferragamo studied anatomy in Los Angeles, and the show quotes him: "I love feet, I have the feeling that they speak to me." After a day on Florence's cobbles, yours will have a few things to say.
Nine sections run from a rebuilt version of his 1923 Hollywood Boot Shop, with photographs, film and original footwear, through 369 patents and their technical drawings to a closing room matching shoes to famous feet. The 1985 retrospective at Palazzo Strozzi lined the shoes up by date as artworks; this one presents them as evidence of his engineering and business.
This is Ferragamo's company museum telling its founder's story, and part of the show looks at what a corporate museum does with its own archive. Open daily 10:30 to 19:30. Tickets are €10, €6 reduced, free for under-18s, over-65s and Firenze Card holders.
Look for
The Hollywood Boot Shop
A rebuilt version of his 1923 shop opposite Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, with photographs, film and original shoes, including pairs made for Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments.
The gold sandal
Look for the 18-karat gold sandal that Florentine goldsmiths moulded for an American client in the 1950s.
The 1937 cork wedge
In the patents section, the cork wedge he designed to raise the heel and give the arch a stable support sits among technical drawings shown in cross-section.
Shoes and famous feet
The last section pairs shoes with wearers: two-tone summer shoes for the Duchess of Windsor, low heels for Ingrid Bergman and exotic leathers for Evita Perón.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
With kids
Under-18s get in free.
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
7
- Broken. The Power of the Fragment© The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource / Scala, Firenze
- Vasari Corridor: Friday Evening OpeningCourtesy of Vasari Corridor
- Museo Salvatore FerragamoRicardalovesmonuments / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Palazzo StrozziMenkinAlRire / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museo Marino MariniSailko / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
- Vasari CorridorFreepenguin, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Uffizi GalleryArek N. (Arkadiusz Nanowski), CC BY-SA 3.0