Ferragamo 2023: The New Renaissance

The story of Ferragamo is not simply, as the founder put it, “the story of the small, barefoot, unlettered boy who became a famous shoemaker”. It is also the story of constant rebirth and evolution. Certainly, Salvatore Ferragamo, born in the village of Bonito, the 11th child of 14, who had been making beautiful footwear since the age of 12, was reborn in the States as a young Italian artisan who understood the desires of  Hollywood. That was Ferragamo’s first Renaissance.

This transformation was achieved by embracing Italian heritage with daring talent. The interiors of his store at 6683 Hollywood Boulevard were pure Italian Renaissance: walls featuring batik resembling 14th-century tapestries, hand-carved sofas, and luxurious draperies complementing classical columns. Though from the Avellino region near Naples, as an Italian, Salvatore was under the spell of Florence, the “Jewel of the Renaissance”, and imbued with the spirit of that place and time; he understood its power and resonance. So, when a few years later he decided to return to Italy there was only one place that would do: Florence. A new Ferragamo Renaissance had begun. 

The Italian Renaissance was a time of intense creativity and new ideas. It celebrated innovation and craftsmanship, and married art and artisan excellence. All this was in evidence at Palazzo Spini Feroni, the home Salvatore gave Ferragamo in Florence in 1927. Dating back to the 13th century, the Palazzo, which is still Ferragamo’s headquarters, seemed emblematic of the Florentine bottega, the workshop or studio of the master artists and craftsmen where dialogue and the exchange of ideas and knowledge allowed Renaissance thinkers, intellectuals, and artists to develop local philosophy and skills into a global phenomenon. 

Multiple rebirths were required along the way – after the Great Depression, after the Second World War – but always the power of creativity prevailed and the “shoemaker to the stars”, as Salvatore became known, like his Renaissance forebears, did enchant the world.

Throughout this time, a creative community fed the founder’s imagination and broadcasted his Florence-infused collections. This included not only Salvatore’s fellow craftsmen; but also his extraordinary clientele: the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Sophia Loren, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Eva Perón (years later Madonna would wear Ferragamo when she played Perón in Evita).

Central to the Florentine experience that drove Ferragamo’s creativity, the symbol of the beating heart of the city’s continual celebration of the Renaissance, was the Uffizi.  Started by Giorgio Vasari as offices – Uffizi – for Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1569, it was one of the earliest modern museums, opening its gallery to the public in 1769 and becoming a museum just under a century later. Throughout the history of the house of Ferragamo in Florence, the Uffizi has been there, a guiding light,  reminding the importance of fresh ideas, art, beauty, and creativity.

Today Ferragamo is experiencing a contemporary Renaissance and partners with the Uffizi to showcase Creative Director Maximilian Davis ‘collection of sensual, elegant and sophisticated ready-to-wear, shoes and bags for Autumn/Winter 2023, using some of the most famous artworks of the 15th and 16th centuries to act as settings for his work. By placing the sharp tailoring and exquisite suiting, the richly textured fabrics and the bold materials and colours, the Hug bag and the archive-inspired gold sandal in the context of works by Bellini, Veronese and Botticelli, Davis has created a dialogue between past and present, where both the spirit of the Renaissance and the world of 21st-century luxury are thrown into different relief by juxtaposition.

And just as founder Salvatore collaborated with an artistic community, Davis has invited a group of creatives to feature in the pictures taken by photographer Tyler Mitchell. The  New Renaissance campaign narrates a community in the making, with a cast of characters portraying models, musicians and creators that inhabit the artwork-based mise en scene, animating them in a contemporary way. 

Maximilian Davis says:

“The Renaissance is hardwired into Florence, and Florence is hardwired into Ferragamo. At this time of a new beginning at the house, it made perfect sense to reclaim the cradle of the Renaissance as our spiritual home, and to harness the deep, artistic spirit of this city to showcase the new collection”.

In a parallel series of images, Ferragamo’s contemporary Florentine bottega is also brought to life, as Tyler Mitchell captures the connectivity of Maximillian Davis’ group of models, and even steps from behind the lens to participate as one himself. These visual insights into a modern-day artist’s studio have precedents from the Renaissance to today, from an image of Tintoretto in his bottega, via Gustav Courbet’s famous The  Artist’s Studio to Richard Avedon’s Andy Warhol and members of The Factory. Mitchell’s depiction of the new Ferragamo community serves to show how through participation and collaboration people can achieve self-expression.

Just as the Renaissance masters of craftmanship and art in Florence came to be esteemed all over the world for their creative achievements, so today Ferragamo is constructing its future through the skilled hands of its artisans, the study and evolution of its heritage, the harnessing of new, creative talents, and the establishing of its community. 

Welcome to Ferragamo’s New Renaissance.

Artworks featured

Alesso Baldovinetti, Annunciation (1457), Giovanni Bellini, Holy Allegory (1490-1500), Paolo Veronese, Annunciation (1570-75), Francesco Granacci, Joseph Going to Prison (1515), Giorgio Vasari, Portrait of Alessandro de Medici (1534), Botticelli, Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder (1475), Botticelli, The Annunciation of San Martino alla Scala (1481), Piero della Francesca, Diptych of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza (1467-1472).

Campaign Creative Director

Ferdinando Verderi

Photographer and Video Director

Tyler Mitchell 

The Cast

Vittoria Ceretti – Model, Anok Yai – Model, Lina Zhang – Model, Jessica Stam – Model, Mona Tougaard  – Model, Paul Hameline – Model, Iván de Pineda – Model, Malick Bodian – Model, Taemin Park – Model, Zainab Jama – Creative Consultant and Strategist, Kelela – Singer and Songwriter, Yasmina Dexter – Sound Artist, Tyler  Mitchell – Photographer and Video Director