Fashion royalty

I was given caution prior to the interview. I was warned to memorize my questions, keep my cool, and keep in mind my journalistic intentions. They gave horror stories of writers stumbling over their questions, alluding to metaphors of drowning in relation to his eyes. I listened as they tried to describe the effect James Ferragamo, one of the heirs to prestigious Italian fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo, has on women and unsuspecting journalists. But even if one listens really hard and steels herself to stay calm and keep her composure, Ferragamo, up close and personal, still stuns.

Having just finished a visit to Manila to grace the gala presentation of the brand’s spring-summer 2005 collection, James Ferragamo is one of those people whose pictures don’t do them justice. Tall and lean, he possesses the charm and dark, good looks synonymous with Italian men. More impressive than his Hollywood—worthy looks is his resumé. The baby-blue eyes and movie-star stature is backed up by a premier education, a notable retail experience, and a fashion legacy dating back to the 1920s when his grandfather Salvatore Ferragamo started his business making cowboy boots in California.

Educated at New York University’s Leonard Stern Business School, where he took up marketing and international business, James spent the school holidays learning the ropes by working as a sales assistant in the Ferragamo boutiques in LA. To gather more experience from the world, outside the company his grandfather established, he spent two years as a buyer of men’s sportswear for Saks Fifth Avenue, and then later as part of the Private Clients division at London’s Goldman Sachs. He completed his stint at Goldman Sachs while completing a masters in finance, accounting, and international business, also at NYU.

In 1998, Ferragamo, education completed and experience ample, joined the family business as a management trainee, eventually moving into the production and development of women’s shoes. It was during this time that he became part of the project, which relaunched the Audrey shoe, a ballet slipper Salvatore Ferragamo created in 1954 for Audrey Hepburn, who had then just gained household-name status with her Oscar-winning role in the film Roman Holiday.

The re-introduction of the Audrey shoe to the public was unlike the launch of the brand’s other products. The grand affair was held at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, located at the Palazzo Spini Feroni, the company’s historic headquarters. This haven was a fitting venue as it contains other representations of the brand’s grandiose design statements all deserving of redevelopment: 10,000 different shoes exquisitely created by the iconic Salvatore Ferragamo from the 1920s to 1960, the year he passed away.

James Ferragamo later played a vital role in launching the first Ferragamo fragrance. He is presently the women’s leather product director and is in charge of corporate sales services.

In his position, James is ideal to talk to about the brand’s present spring-summer offering, a collection of flirty frocks and brightly—colored accessories, but it is the upcoming autumn-winter collection he is more enthusiastic about.

Philippine STAR: How would you describe Ferragamo’s upcoming autumn-winter collection for 2005? What is the key look for this season?

James Ferragamo: The autumn-winter collection for 2005 (focuses) on the use of materials and the importance of creating materials. There is much material integration in this collection. My grandfather Salvatore was one who used a lot of material integration in his offerings, and we go back to these roots in this collection. For shoes, we use wicker, leather, and lizard skin. This is aligned with our ready—to—wear collection, which is heavy on knits.

Back in the Forties, Ferragamo became famous for popularizing the wedge shoe made of unusual materials, such as raffia, nylon, wood, and cork. Do you still have that shoe?

We have it as part of this autumn-winter collection. We have that wedge called the F Wedge. When the shoe is upside down, it represents the way the "F" in Ferragamo looks. It’s a wedge that we’ve offered throughout our collection. For us, it’s very important to be able to use past successes and update it in a way that is current to what we are doing.

One of Ferragamo’s most classic designs is the grosgrain Vara bow. How do you try to revise this classic design to make it more suitable to contemporary times?

You can always play with that. It’s interesting because the design is very elementary. You can always vary the style. You can always play with the heel or vary the opening of the vamp. That style is very recognizable and we want to maintain that recognizability. We’ve done the bow in plexi, in PVC, and we’re also playing around with other materials going forth into the next collections.

Has it always remained a bestseller?

It’s a very important part of the collection.

Ferragamo is known as a classic luxury brand. Is there a conscious effort on the part of the brand to target hip, young fashion—lovers?

Absolutely, but in a Ferragamo way, which we need to maintain. The Ferragamo way can be widely interpreted, so it also gives us a lot of possibilities. What we don’t want to do is try to reach the younger customers by doing the things our competitors are doing because then we lose our identity. The brand Ferragamo is a very untarnished brand. We don’t want to make any cheap moves that will reduce the value of the company. In renewing our offering, we always maintain quality, a certain classicism, but mixed with modernity and innovation, the use of color, which is always important, and a tradition in terms of that extra workmanship that goes into creating a product that distinguishes it and justifies the appeal of the brand name Ferragamo.

Are all your merchandise really made in Italy?

Yes, everything. The only exceptions are the watches, which are made in Switzerland.

Ferragamo was once known as the Shoemaker to the Stars, providing shoes for Douglas Fairbanks, John Barrymore, and, later on, Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren. Does the brand still exert an effort to be associated with famous Hollywood figures?

We’ve created some products for Zhang Ziyi. She’s giving us some input, and we’re taking these into consideration in developing some items that we will be launching in her country. We do product positioning in movies. We have close associations with different actors and actresses, such as Drew Barrymore and Uma Thurman, who have been seen wearing our handbags. Tom Cruise wore Ferragamo shoes for the Oscars.

But Ferragamo doesn’t use renowned faces and celebrities in its campaigns?

Currently, no, but we may change come next time.

What classic Ferragamo shoe or accessory would you like to see back on the shelves?

It varies from season to season. We developed the Audrey shoe (named after Audrey Hepburn) a couple of years ago, and we still have that design in the shops today. It was a shoe created by my grandfather in 1954, and we just basically did the same shoe again and offered it in the shops. It’s been performing extremely well. We just didn’t launch the Audrey shoe in the shops. We had this whole promotional thing and launched it through a museum activity.

Do you also try your hand at designing?

Not as much. We wouldn’t be here if I were designing. I’m not a great designer. I’m more into the marketing side.

But if you were to create the perfect shoe for a woman, how would it look?

I’m not a designer…

But I’m sure you’d know what looks good on a woman…

It depends. Women are so different. You get the petite woman, you get the more active lady, so you have to find something which corresponds to the personality of the woman. It would be something to match the person, not something to match everybody, and that’s a really hard approach.

If a woman were to have only three pairs of Ferragamo shoes, which should they be?

Well, she should definitely have something from our runway collection, something that can take her from day to evening, or something a little bit more feminine. Maybe something with the Ferragamo "F," the wedge, perhaps, something that is very identifiable with the brand. The second pair would be the Audrey shoe, a flat, very casual shoe. From there, the third shoe can be something casual, from our interpretation of casual wear, such as our sneakers or our flip—flops.

And one must—have handbag?

It would be from the leather line we just entered in our autumn—winter collection. It’s a hobo and we’ve done it in many different materials. It’s a very iconic brand. We have the handles in wood and these can be done in leather, in lizard, in fabric, or in suede.

* * *

The Salvatore Ferragamo Spring-Summer 2005 showing was produced in cooperation with Globe Platinum, local Ferragamo distributor Stores Specialists Inc., and the Philippine Italian Association (PIA), to benefit the PIA Endowment Fund, a subsidiary program whose objectives include providing talented Filipino artists a chance to study abroad.

* * *

E-mail comments to ana_kalaw@pldtdsl.net.