Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A.

Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. [salvaˈtoːre ferraˈɡaːmo] is an Italian luxury goods company, with headquarters in Florence, specializing in shoes, leather goods, and ready-to-wear for men and women. It is the parent company of the Ferragamo Group. The company also licences eyewear and watches.

With about 2,600 employees and a network of over 550 mono-brand stores, the Ferragamo Group runs operations in Italy and worldwide, which provide the brand with a broad footprint in Europe, America and Asia.

History

Salvatore Ferragamo emigrated from southern Italy to Boston and then California in 1914. He opened the Hollywood Boot Shop in 1923, and made shoes for movie stars such as Joan Crawford and Gloria Swanson, as well as for films such as Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. He returned to Italy and set up a shoe shop in Florence in 1927. However, the modern shoemaking company regards 1928 as the date of its foundation and so celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2008. Salvatore filed for bankruptcy in 1933, during the Great Depression, but by 1938 he was in a position to buy the Palazzo Spini Feroni, one of the great palaces of Florence, which now houses the company's flagship store and a museum dedicated to Ferragamo's life and work.