Family – the glue that binds us together – and the house traditions of craft and artisanship form the twin foundations of a Salvatore Ferragamo collection that is light, bright and designed for joyful living in the 2020’s.
Paul Andrew explains: “It started with a photo on my mother’s mantelpiece of my brother and I on summer holiday in Italy when we were kids in the 1980s. We are wearing clashing Bermuda prints and smiles. I wanted to bring that feeling of fun and sun-drenched innocence into a modern context with a collection that is physically very light and knowingly bourgeois but which also has tangible depth, substance and care in its construction.”
The house icon Vara shoe, designed by Fiamma Ferragamo, daughter of house-founder Salvatore, in 1979 is lovingly reinvented as the Viva: mono-colour in a sophisticated spectrum of tones, the famous grosgrain bow is enlarged and expressed in leather – as is the original shoe’s hardware accessory – on a pump that comes either cinched in the back or with a solidly crafted upper.
New prints featuring Ammannati’s 16th Century Fountain of Neptune in Florence – recently restored thanks to funding from the Ferragamo family – play against oversized tulip prints on backless short dungarees, scarf-caps, long easy silk devore dresses, men’s shirting and swimwear.
Bubble skirts, cinched-ankle trousers, racerback tailored waistcoats and wide-legged dungarees are all affectionate Italian-flavoured 80s revivals, often expressed in leather and presented in a colour story designed to echo the tradition of Murano glassmaking. 3D printed jewellery in clear resin is shot through with sinuous twist of colour. Trenches and dungarees are cut open at the back to let the skin breathe: leather fronted trousers and shirts are backed in cotton to conjure a striking contrast.
Artisanal achievements include a Raschel knit dress and top striped in fringed ribbons of crepe de chine, and a hand crocheted tank-dress made in the hills above Florence. A light fringe-edged skirt of woven silk features a sash panel. Men’s tailoring is breezily split-seamed.
The new Ferragamo triple pocket expandable handbag comes in leather-lined linen canvas, hand woven leather mesh, ostrich and waxed calfskin and is presented in a new shoulder slung size.
Paul Andrew says: “Precious but never heavy, these are clothes, shoes and bags to cherish far beyond a single season for many summers to come. They are built for long languid days of sun, salt, sand and ocean. I hope that for those who own them, in the years to come they will be a little like that photo on my mother’s mantelpiece: a well-worn reminder of happy times.”
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