Salvatore Ferragamo Eyewear: From a Nine-Year-Old's First Shoes to Hollywood Glamour

Salvatore Ferragamo is a name synonymous with shoes — specifically, the kind that once graced the feet of some of Hollywood's biggest stars. But the house's eyewear collection carries the same story forward: a family business built on craftsmanship, color, and an eye for detail that dates back to a nine-year-old boy in southern Italy.

A calling discovered at age nine

Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898 in Bonito, a small town in southern Italy, the eleventh of fourteen children. His path into shoemaking started remarkably early: at just nine years old, he made his first pair of shoes — a set of high heels — for his sisters to wear at their confirmation. That early success convinced him he'd found his calling, and he went on to study shoemaking formally in Naples before opening a small shop in his parents' home.

From Boston bootmaking to Hollywood's "Shoemaker to the Stars"

In 1914, Ferragamo emigrated to the United States, settling in Boston, where one of his brothers worked at a cowboy boot factory. After a period there, he moved west, and in 1923 he opened a small shop on Hollywood Boulevard, repairing shoes and making custom, made-to-measure footwear for local customers. It didn't take long for his craftsmanship to attract attention — movie stars began seeking him out specifically, and he earned the nickname "Shoemaker to the Stars." Marilyn Monroe would later become one of his most famous muses, inspiring what became known as the Ferragamo pump.

Returning to Italy and building an empire

After thirteen years in the United States, Ferragamo returned to Italy in 1927, settling in Florence and officially founding his company there. He weathered financial setbacks along the way — including a bankruptcy filing in 1933 during the Great Depression, driven largely by the company's reliance on U.S.-based business — but had recovered fully by 1938, when he purchased the Palazzo Spini Feroni in Florence. That building has served as the company's headquarters, flagship store, and the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum ever since. His clientele during this period included some of the era's biggest names, from Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren to Greta Garbo.

A family legacy after Salvatore's death

Salvatore Ferragamo died in 1960 at the age of 62, but rather than the company fading with him, his widow, Wanda Ferragamo, took the reins and expanded the brand significantly. Under her leadership, the house moved well beyond footwear and into leather goods, ready-to-wear, fragrance, watches, and eyewear — establishing Ferragamo as a full-fledged luxury lifestyle house rather than a single-category shoemaker. The company remains majority family-owned today, having gone public on the Italian stock exchange in 2011 while the Ferragamo family retained roughly 65% of shares.

Eyewear joins the collection

Ferragamo's eyewear, along with its Swiss-made watches, is produced today through a licensing partnership with Marchon Eyewear. Marchon's launch of the Salvatore Ferragamo eyewear collection leaned directly into founder Salvatore Ferragamo's own design instincts: he was known for favoring bold, saturated colors over the whites, blacks, and browns that dominated much of the era's fashion, and that same instinct for diversity and experimentation carries through the eyewear line's use of varied acetate textures and rich color combinations.

A design language built on Ferragamo's own icons

Ferragamo eyewear draws its recurring design elements directly from the house's most famous fashion signatures — including the Gancino, the brand's interlocking horseshoe-shaped clasp, and the Vara bow, both instantly recognizable symbols first introduced on the brand's shoes and handbags. Collections span sleek aviators with a signature top bar and bridge, sharper square silhouettes, and oversized round frames, each reflecting what the house describes as a balance between historical roots and modern reinterpretation.

Where the brand stands today

Modern Ferragamo eyewear continues to be designed and made in Italy, sold under the rebranded "Ferragamo" name adopted in 2022 under creative director Maximilian Davis. The eyewear collection remains a favorite among contemporary celebrities, including Kate Winslet, Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Madonna, continuing a tradition of star power that dates back to Ferragamo's own Hollywood beginnings a century ago.