Shoes stories: interesting facts about footwear.
Hollywood shoesomania.
According to the data of the Italian Association of Footwear Producers, the majority of Hollywood star are nearly infected by shoesomania. No one of the celebrities spares down on shoes! The wardrobe of some of Beverly-Hills dwellers consists of more than a thousand pairs of shoes. It is worth admitting, that shoesomania is a contagious disease that can also infect male actors. Some of them buy about six new pairs of shoes every year, and this is far before the limit! The majority of stars prefer Italian brands.
Shoes country.
Italian borders form a nice boot on the map of the world, so there is no surprise that this country really specializes in shoes and footwear fashion. More than thirty hundred big, medium and small enterprises manufacture footwear in Italy. Though the country with the biggest number of shoe-buyers is France – the French women still hold this record.
An invisible sandal by Ferragamo.
Soon after World War II an Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo, noticing the fishermen working in Florence, decided to create sandals, using nylon threads instead of leather. To create the image of an invisible sandal, Ferragamo made a wooden heel, by this making a foot nearly flying in the air. All leather belts were substituted by nylon threads, that were fixed on both sides of the foot.
Due to the lightening the upper part of these sandals appeared to be absolutely invisible, and at a certain angle it seemed, that a sole is just floating in the air. Despite wide publicity and virtuosity of design the sandals were hardly sold, and the reason for this was their exorbitant price. But in the 1960-s invisible shoes got their period of revival. The heels and fringes of these shoes were decorated with glittering gems.
Ferragamo Designer Women Shoes
It was Salvatore Ferragamo who provided many famous women with gorgeous shoes and the women adored Ferragamo shoes. Marilyn Monroe preferred 4in. high Ferragamo stilettos, Audrey Hepburn was crazy about Ferragamo ballet slippers and Judy Garland liked phantasmagoric Ferragamo platform shoes. The great master succeeded to find a unique and individual approach to every woman.
That’s how unique silk Ferragamo shoes for Sophia Loren, velvet Ferragamo pumps for Monroe, golden open-toe Ferragamo sandals for Carmen Miranda - a famous Brazilian dancer were designed, as well as futuristic open-toe Ferragamo sandals for Judy Garland and ‘invisible’ sandals from a fishing line. The famous shoemaker used to say, ‘Ten minutes after putting on new shoes you still should feel comfortable.”
Salvatore Ferragamo was born at the end of the 19th century in an Italian village. At the age of 8 he made his first pair of shoes and at the age of 16 he moved to the USA and soon he became the most famous shoemaker in Hollywood. He learned anatomy and mathematics in order to be able to design perfect shoes. It was he who invented wedgies. Among his patrons were Pola Negri and Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson. It was Salvatore Ferragamo who was first to experiment with fur and fish leather.
It was rather difficult to design shoes for celebrities but Ferragamo managed to remember all their habits and whims. For example the Countess of Windsor never wore new styles but placed identical white satin shoe orders as she used to dye them to match her dresses. Marlene Dietrich wore each pair of shoes only two times. Mussolini’s mistress Clara Petacci engaged herself in competition with famous Evita. When the latter was executed the former left fifty pairs of the ordered and unpaid shoes in Ferragamo’s workshop.
Shortly before his death in 1960 Salvatore Ferragamo wrote an autobiography that had the title ‘Shoemaker of Dreams’. After Ferragamo’s death the management of the company Salvatore Ferragamo was passed into the hands of Ferragamo’s sons. The company has been making shoes for Madonna, Dru Barrymore, Brigitte Bardot, Julia Roberts, and Meryl Streep, etc. No doubt that Salvatore Ferragamo shoes will make any woman unique and charming.
