cerca nel sito:
Salvatore Ferragamo and the cinema:
Hollywood
“The Hollywood to which I came in the spring of 1923 - as Ferragamo writes - was still little more than a village in the sun. The studios were few and, compared with their future, modest in size and budgets. There was a scattering of palatial homes- Harold Llyod’s, Mary Pickford’s, Barbara La Marr’s Pola Negri’s, Rudolph Valentino’s, Charlie Chaplin’s- in which magnificent parties could be thrown; the majority of the remainder had neither the size nor the facilities for the large- entertainments soon to became so familiar. On the surface of the Hollywood of 1923 there was a good deal of substance in my brothers’ contention that there was an insufficient
population to support our repair shop and little hope
for my future in custom-made shoes, particularly considering the limitation of my output.
When I left Hollywood in 1927- never to return, as it happened , except as a visitor – all was changed. The studios were larger, more magnificent , wealthier. Some of the concentration of capital has already taken place.
(Shoemaker of Dreams. The autobiography of Salvatore Ferragamo, London 1957) His first contract was with the American Film Company, which asked him to make boots for their westerns. Actors and actresses who wore Ferragamo shoes on set started getting made-to-measure shoes for themselves in the small shoe shop Ferragamo opened in Santa Barbara. Directors like Cecil B. De Mille, David W. Griffith, James Cruze and Raoul Walsh were the true source of his fortune. From Salvatore they ordered shoes for films like Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920), The Ten Commandments (C.B. De Mille, 1923), The Covered Wagon (J. Cruze, 1923) and The Thief of Baghdad (R.Walsh, 1924). The cinema became the fantastic generator of fashion and fashions that it is today. Ferragamo models soon became objects of desire and seduction and Salvatore earned the nickname “shoemaker to the stars”. Famous actresses and actors like Pola Negri, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford, Rodolfo Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks sr. were amongst his affectionate customers. In 1923, on the wave of this success, Ferragamo was able to open the “Hollywood Boot Shop” on Hollywood Boulevard, on the corner of Las Palmas. It was a large and elegant store but with a discreet, cosy atmosphere. Many of the stars that filled the pages of American newspapers came to its opening or sent good luck cards and flowers.
(Shoemaker of Dreams. The autobiography of Salvatore Ferragamo, London 1957) His first contract was with the American Film Company, which asked him to make boots for their westerns. Actors and actresses who wore Ferragamo shoes on set started getting made-to-measure shoes for themselves in the small shoe shop Ferragamo opened in Santa Barbara. Directors like Cecil B. De Mille, David W. Griffith, James Cruze and Raoul Walsh were the true source of his fortune. From Salvatore they ordered shoes for films like Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920), The Ten Commandments (C.B. De Mille, 1923), The Covered Wagon (J. Cruze, 1923) and The Thief of Baghdad (R.Walsh, 1924). The cinema became the fantastic generator of fashion and fashions that it is today. Ferragamo models soon became objects of desire and seduction and Salvatore earned the nickname “shoemaker to the stars”. Famous actresses and actors like Pola Negri, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford, Rodolfo Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks sr. were amongst his affectionate customers. In 1923, on the wave of this success, Ferragamo was able to open the “Hollywood Boot Shop” on Hollywood Boulevard, on the corner of Las Palmas. It was a large and elegant store but with a discreet, cosy atmosphere. Many of the stars that filled the pages of American newspapers came to its opening or sent good luck cards and flowers.
Salvatore Ferragamo Spa
Via Tornabuoni, 2 50123 Firenze - tel. 055 3360 456/455 - fax 055 3360 475 -
e-mail museoferragamo@ferragamo.com
Capitale Sociale: EURO 16.841.000,00 int.versato
CCIAA Firenze- REA 464724 - Cod.Fisc.,Part.IVA. e Iscriz. Registro Imprese di Firenze n.02175200480
