MFW: Leathers, Feathers and Sheer Inspirations Abound at Ferragamo

It’s been nearly a century since Salvatore Ferragamo, Italian shoe designer to the stars, knelt beside a seated Joan Crawford and fitted her with one of his iconic, bespoke heels. It took place at his Hollywood Boot Shop on Hollywood Boulevard, a spot where, during the cinematic era of the 1920s, silver screen deities and high society women flocked for personal fittings.

It was this image, and this era, that inspired Maximilian Davis, current creative director of Ferragamo, for Fall/Winter 2024. Backstage and in his show notes he waxed lyrical about revelling in such a renaissance, imagining the glamour and simplicity of the time. The collection, in turn, is a relaxed romancing of the Deco decade with nuanced flapper flamboyancy and jazz moderne woven within his future vision for the legacy brand.

While the twenties was an era of excess, Davis pulled back to ensure his was a kind of refined, Ferragamo excess. While well-cut leathers defined the core of the collection, his sartorial garnishes were creative and appropriate. Quilted obi belts, some that fastened across the clavicle and some that hung suspended from a dropped waistline provided a cool take on upbeat structure, while the dappling of ostrich feathers (on some shoes and hemlines) added an unexpected tactility.

Suiting came in monochromatic crimson, turmeric and speckled cinnamon as did very wearable stretch-dresses that were paired with a revived version of Mr. Ferragamo’s original T-bar pump. Cashmere ensembles in textural caramel came as skirt suits for women and thick button-up cardigans for men (replete with leather shorties) while after-five looks visited the origins of twenties couture with gold Gatsby tasseling, ruby-red scalloped sequins and one full-length beaded cowl-neck number in a luminescent shade of lemon.

However, as with many of the collections of this season, it was not the glitzy gowns but the utilitarian outerwear that played heroine, here. Pea coats with architectural collars and exaggerated silhouettes were instantly covetable, especially the one in an inspired choice of olive-flecked tweed. Trousers ran long and bags extended to boxy carry-alls, each in shades that matched their outfits.

Despite the homage to classicism, however, Davis interpreted his founder’s era of fashion risqué by refreshing the season with a current favourite – the diaphanous slip. Some layered under coats and some under nothing at all, the lengthy, floaty pieces provided a trendy modernism and a compelling textural contrast. They also iterated that classic first impressions are not always what they seem. This collection is an inconspicuously sensual offering for the cold months, one both impressionably wearable and creatively thoughtful. In fact, the more you look at it, down to the perfected details (the socks with the boots, the embroidered knitwear, the matching ties and shirts, the liquid-like satins, the woolly tights and the fuzzy slipper footwear) the more impressive it becomes.

Seated and waiting for the store drop.

This story originally appeared in GRAZIA International.