When I visited the Ferragamo Museum in Florence, what struck me most wasn’t the glamour of the shoes, but the ingenuity behind them. He didn’t invent to impress – he invented because he refused to stop creating, even when materials ran out.
The inception
Born in 1898 in Bonito, a small village in Italy, Salvatore Ferragamo emigrated to the United States at almost 17, already a skilled shoemaker. After a few years, he became known in Santa Barbara and later in Hollywood for his bespoke shoes, crafted for the rising stars of cinema.
Thanks to his creativity, craftsmanship, and obsession with comfort – he even attended university classes on anatomy – Ferragamo’s name soon became synonymous with quality, innovation, and perfect fit. His designs were sought after by the movie stars of the era, who regularly visited his Hollywood Boot Shop.
In 1926, he returned to Italy and settled in Florence, where he founded a company that would eventually employ over 750 shoemakers, producing 350 pairs of shoes a day.
A designer who treated constraint as opportunity
In the 1930s and 40s, during years of shortage and war, Ferragamo was already experimenting with what we now call material innovation. He worked with fish skin, raffia, nylon, bark, candy wrappers twisted into thread, and other unconventional materials to make shoes that were light, flexible, and modern.
Most famously, when steel for shoe supports was requisitioned for military use, he began carving and pressing Sardinian cork to replace it. The result was a lighter, more stable shoe that quietly changed women’s footwear: the wedge sandal as we know it today. An invention born from necessity became a permanent shift in fashion. It was adopted internationally, copied everywhere, and recognised as a symbol of Italian ingenuity.
Notable designs and inventions
Wedge
Invisible upper
Invisible sole
Cage heel
Innovation as mindset, not marketing
What I admire most about Ferragamo, and about the early founders of the great heritage houses, is how they approached design. They didn’t work within the boundaries of what “luxury materials” were supposed to be – they questioned them. When silk was scarce, they used raffia. When leather was rationed, they turned to canvas. Their work was driven by curiosity and problem-solving.
Back then, the catalyst was often scarcity. Today, it’s climate change and ethics, and the same creative courage is needed to imagine a better way forward.
Innovating for today
At LOUÉ, we approach materials in that same spirit. Given the intensive carbon footprint and toxicity of both leather and synthetics, we choose pioneering, plant-based alternatives such as MIRUM® – a 100% plant-based, plastic-free material made from natural rubber, cork powder, and plant oils, without synthetic binders or petrochemicals.
It’s not the easier route. It’s slower, more complex, and more costly to work with. But it represents what we believe modern luxury should stand for: innovation through intention.
Ferragamo looked at a shortage of steel and imagined a new way to shape a shoe. We looked at a world saturated with plastic and imagined a new way to craft a bag. Different eras, same conviction: that true craftsmanship is always evolving. Because luxury isn’t about repetition – it’s about reinvention.