The import rush of famous overseas brand products and the freedom of overseas travels since the mid 1990s have changed domestic consumers?f inclinations considerably. One of such changes is the birth of designer brands such as Suecomma Bonnie and The ...
The import rush of famous overseas brand products and the freedom of overseas travels since the mid 1990s have changed domestic consumers?f inclinations considerably. One of such changes is the birth of designer brands such as Suecomma Bonnie and The Shoe in the area of shoe products and another change is high interest in comfort shoes such as Vainer and Sas. By developing products highly sensuous and sensitive to trends, designer brands target young customers pursuing fashionableness. In addition, people?fs interest in comfort shoes emphasizing functionality has been rising with the change of lifestyle resulting from the expansion of aged population and the five?]days?]work?]week system.
Thus, the present study was conducted in order to examine the formative beauty of Ferragamo shoes, which are considered outstanding in fashionableness and functionality in the 20th century?fs history of shoes characterized by remarkable changes in the external physical beauty and functional technology and, through this, to contribute to the development of shoes design to a higher level.
We analyzed the formative characteristics of Salvatore Ferragamo shoes in terms of form, material, color and decoration. The scope of this research was Ferragamo?fs design works during the period from 1927 when Ferragamo returned to Italy from the U.S. and began his design activities to his death in 1960, and information was obtained mainly from materials in the Ferragamo Museum and his autobiography.
Ferragamo shoes began its history tracing back to the early 20th century with the opening of a tailored shoes and shoe repair shop in Hollywood, and designed shoes for historical films as well as elegant style shoes for celebrities. Suffering from financial difficulty and bankruptcy during the Great Depression in 1929, it was reduced to a home handicraft business with shrunk production, but it continued to introduce new ideas and gave birth to Cork Wedge shoes, the trademark of Ferragamo shoes, in around 1936. From that time, the image of Ferragamo products began to be established, and in 1947 it was awarded the Neiman Marcus Prize (Fashion Oscar) for ?gThe Invisible Shoe?h for the first time as an Italian. The international reputation attracted celebrated customers such as Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, and draw attention throughout the world. Today, Ferragamo is producing bags, clothes, scarves, belts and shoes targeting customers throughout the world, and Salvatore?fs obsession to quality for creating shoes as art works is the fundamental driving force of Ferragamo.
The characteristics of Ferragamo shoes are as follows. Adopting anatomy, it studied load concentrated on the feet when wearing shoes and achieved functional innovation by inventing a special technique of driving a long steel core instead of using leather for the shank supporting the foot. Traditionally, Western shoes had been considered elegant when they were small in size, high, and had a pointed toe. Denying such a concept, however, Ferragamo designed shoes as comfortable as possible by reflecting the natural line of the foot. Also it did not limit materials including cellophane, wood, clay and cork assuming that anything is usable as long as it can express beauty. Strong and bold colors like orange, deep red, yellow and green were used frequently regardless of what colors were in fashion in those days. For decoration, womanly animated images were expressed mainly using embroidery, appliqué and leather patchwork.
Based on the formative characteristics of Ferragamo shoes design as above, its formative beauty can be summarized as follows.
First, Ferragamo shoes, which studied the structure of food and pursued comfort and functionality, were deeply attached to functional beauty until they were regarded as the pronoun of comfort.
Second, Ferragamo shoes did not put the aesthetic elements of design in the second place to functionality, but expressed elegance for everything from the top to the bottom.
Third, in difficult situations such as the Great Depression and the shortage of materials in the war, Ferragamo pursued creative beauties by developing various materials and ideas.
Fourth, Ferragamo expressed eroticism through strong colors and dramatic forms.
Fifth, Ferragamo expressed exotic beauties.
As presented above, Ferragamo created shoes out of thorough craftsmanship based on the basic philosophies pursuing functional beauty, elegance, originality, eroticism and exotic beauty. Formative analysis of his works showed that neither physical beauty nor functional comfort should be missed in designing shoes. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the harmonious development of fashionableness and functionality in future shoes design.