Salvatore Ferragamo was an Italian footwear designer from the 20th-century. He was able to provide the most famous personalities in Hollywood along with other prominent figures, icons and socialites with a lot of unique hand-made designs. He spawned an empire of various luxury consumer goods emporia that were designed for men and women alike. Ferragamo started out his career in the 1910s in Naples. Afterwards, he moved to the United States - first in Boston, then in California.



The founder of the fashion house of Salvatore Ferragamo was born as the eleventh of fourteen children. He was born in Bonito, Italy in in 1898. He made his first pair of shoes when he was only nine years old. He made themm for his sisters' confirmation, after which, he felt that he found his calling as he always had a burning passion for shoes. He studied shoemaking in Naples and then opened a small shoe store in the house of his parents. Then, in 1914, he moved to Boston, as it was where one of his siblings worked for a cowboy boot factory.

He tried to work at the factry as well and then convinced his siblings to move to California, to Santa Barbara then to Hollywood. Here, Ferragamo found success, as he initially opening a repair shop as well as shoes. These pieces were immediately considered to be prized items in celebrities of that time. This led to designing footwear for celebrities who appeared on the big screen. Later on, he moved back to Florence and started to design shoes for the most powerful and wealthiest women of the century. In 1929, he was able to open a workshop for experimenting with design as well as about applying for patents for utility and ornamental models.

The "Cage Heel" was his most popular invention. He was always seen as a visionary and his fashion designs were truly an inspiration for all the other footwear .