When you’re at a show thrown by a shoe house, look at the shoes. Salvatore Ferragamo is the greatest old-school shoe house of them all, so here, it really paid to focus on the footwear. First impression: Ferragamo’s Paul Andrew is taking a fair stab at the heavily burdened gig of designing shoes in the house founder’s name. His common theme was a column-like heel framed in delicate pillars of gold surrounded in clear Perspex, sometimes set inward below inset-heel sandals, sometimes flush to the ankle on booties and more sandals. The toes tended to be pointy. The uppers featured a lot of double strapping in primary-color leather, some exotic, and a monochrome jacquard used in an ankle boot. There were some colored python boots, too, and a few flat sandals.
This event was a big shebang. Instead of its usual location, the Milanese stock exchange, Ferragamo staged a party in the square outside it around Maurizio Cattelan’s one-fingered comment on the financial system’s attitude to the rest of us, L.O.V.E. The party was called Amo, so it was frustrating not to much fancy the clothes. With the exception of one perforated green leather jumpsuit that had a touch of swag and a color-bled degrade velvet evening gown that hinted at attitude, this was an unconvincing collection from womenswear designer Fulvio Rigoni. There was obvious line-sheet synergy between his clothes and Andrew’s shoes—just check the fabrications—but the execution of the ready-to-wear was both tentative and unimaginative. Motions were gone through. There was a series of perforated python looks that would have been just-about okay in a Cavalli reboot. There was a half-hearted tilt at a theme with dresses and knits that featured wide-weave silk scarfing. There was some expensive-looking post-Raf-to-Calvin transparency in the outerwear. And some open-backed, spaghetti-strapped silk dresses were fine enough but generic.
The man this house is built upon was a pioneer who left his country and built a legend through artistry, ingenuity, and grit. To cite some of his most defining clients—Garbo, Bardot, Perón, and Monroe—in the press release served only to emphasize the difference between then and now. Ferragamo is a great house, but greatness should not be taken for granted. It should be built upon.
