Wonderful Wanda
If someone described a movie where a young woman with no work or design experience saved one of the world’s top luxury fashion brands, you’d probably think, “That happens only in movies.”
Wanda Ferragamo was that young woman.
Wanda was born on 18 December 1921 in the small town of Bonito in the Irpinia region of Italy, also the birthplace of her future husband, Salvatore’s Ferragamo. Her father, Fulvio, was a doctor of the Secular Franciscan Order. He was stern but fair, and Wanda would carry her father’s principles of moral integrity, modesty, balance, and religious faith with her throughout her long life. Her mother, Giovanna Pellegrino, came from a family of merchants and landowners in Ariano di Puglia. She loved music, managed the family’s assets, and passed on her passion for cooking to Wanda.
Tragedy struck Wanda as, a teenager when her brother fell into a well during a football match, and her grief-stricken mother died soon after. She remembers that time with sadness and joy because, in the summer of 1940, Salvatore Ferragamo walked into her life. Salvatore had studied shoemaking in Naples for a year before moving to Boston in 1914, where his brother worked in a cowboy boot factory.
Eventually, he convinced his brothers to move to California, first Santa Barbara, then Hollywood, where he opened a shoe shop for repair and made-to-measure, ultimately leading to his creation of footwear for the cinema. He became known as “Shoemaker to the Stars,” crafting shoes for some of the most famous people in Hollywood during the 1920s, including Audrey Hepburn, Gloria Swanson, and Marilyn Monroe. In 1927, Ferragamo returned to Italy and set up a shoe shop in Florence.
Salvatore Ferragamo was already a celebrity when he arrived at Wanda’s house to visit her father. As Wanda was introduced to him, she commended Ferragamo for contributing to feminine elegance. Her words so struck Salvatore that he decided on the spot that she would be his wife, despite their age difference. Wanda was 18 at the time, and Salvatore was 42. On 9 November 1940, they tied the knot at the Santa Lucia church in Naples and traveled to their home in the Florentine hills after their honeymoon.
Life was wonderful, although the war created uncertainty about the future. The births of their two daughters, Fiamma and Giovanna, filled their home with joy. The couple’s first son, Ferruccio, was born on 8 September 1945. The years of post-war reconstruction were a time of growth for the city of Florence and the Ferragamo family. Borders reopened, and international trade resumed. Three more children were born, Fulvia, Leonardo, and Massimo. The family grew, as did Salvatore’s business commitments and travel. A devoted mother, Wanda experienced the company mainly through Salvatore’s stories and on special occasions when famous clients like Audrey Hepburn came to Florence in 1954 to order a few pairs of shoes from the renowned shoemaker.
In 1958, after returning home from a trip to Australia, Salvatore began showing symptoms of a serious illness. Fiamma, his eldest daughter, gave up her Classics studies to join him in the business, learning everything she needed to know about shoes by her father’s side. Giovanna also left high school to take a course in fashion at the Lucrezia Tornabuoni School in Florence. In 1959, she designed her first clothing collection and presented it at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
Salvatore died in Forte dei Marmi on 7 August 1960. Wanda was devastated and worried about the future, although the workers at the funeral tried to reassure her, “We can do it, you’ll see. We’ll help you.” She had never worked outside the home; years later, people would ask her how she did it. “I don’t know,” she answered. “Women are, in a way, the keepers of the affection that sustains the relationship. Gradually I found the energy I needed to move forward. I had only ever taken care of my family and suddenly, I had to see to everything. Management, restocking, technical issues, tracking expenditure. I believe that all of us women, or nearly all of us, could easily run a company if we’re already able to judiciously run a household.”
And run the company, she did. From 1960 until her death in 2018, Wanda Ferragamo was the driving force behind Salvatore Ferragamo, taking over as president of the fashion house to carry on her late partner’s dream. “She was motivated by great love for my father and for what he had created. After his death she built the reputation for which Salvatore Ferragamo would come to be known around the world, a brand founded on sound moral values, respect for people and excellent product quality,” Wanda’s daughter Giovanna Gentile said, “She had incredible heart and passion and the most important thing I learned from her is to believe in a dream and do everything you can to realize it.”
Salvatore left many ideas unfinished. At his death, he was adapting the Ferragamo production line and fitting systems to meet growing demand. This evolution was a real challenge and required a balancing act between his rigorous handcrafted process and the necessity of using machines to scale operations. Wanda turned to Jerry, Salvatore’s nephew, who Salvatore had mentored in all the technical aspects of shoemaking. Jerry shepherded the Ferragamo production line into the modern era of industrial production.
Despite the daunting responsibility and raising six young children, Wanda Ferragamo proved to be a remarkable businesswoman. She began to run the company like her own family, using the moral compass her father had given her all those years ago. Soon, with the support of her daughters and a few employees, Wanda intensified the development plan her husband had begun, preserving her husband’s legacy of innovation and quality and significantly expanding the business.
One of her key decisions was to diversify the company’s offerings. While Salvatore Ferragamo had made his name in shoes, Wanda Ferragamo led the company into new areas, including handbags, eyewear, watches, ready-to-wear clothing, and even fragrances. This strategy not only increased revenue but also enhanced the brand’s global reputation as a comprehensive luxury lifestyle brand and remained a favorite among celebrities and discerning consumers worldwide.
Her philosophy? Keep the business in the family and train her children to take on various roles within the company. The strategy worked as each of her children eventually held key positions, ensuring the continuity of Salvatore’s original vision where family and commitment to the highest quality always came before profit.
In 1961, Wanda created Gilio, the first Ferragamo perfume, and commissioned the first Ferragamo silk scarf, which Salvatore had designed in collaboration with the artist Alvaro Monnini.
This event would mark the company’s successful entry into the production of accessories which would morph into its own business when the Ferragamos’ third daughter, Fulvia, decided to join her mother in the industry in 1971. Expansion into new product divisions led to transforming production, communication, and investment strategies, and Wanda was always at the helm. She relied on her intuition to find the best location for a new store, analyze the local clientele and competition, study the product offer and design training for salespeople, deciding how they should present themselves and even how the merchandise should be arranged in the displays.
In 1963, another of her children, Ferruccio, joined the family business, training and working in various divisions. He trained in logistics, shoe production, and retail operations and became general manager in 1970, then named managing director in 1984. Under Fiamma’s direction, new production lines were rolled out for small leather goods and bags in 1965. Throughout the 1970s, the Ferragamo brand consolidated its position, building up its image by expanding production further with the arrival of Fulvia and Leonardo, respectively responsible for the new silk accessories and menswear divisions.
If Salvatore Ferragamo was the father of the made it Italy movement, Wanda was undoubtedly the mother of it. She and their children helped cement the brand as a permanent fixture in luxury Italian craftsmanship. The 1980s were an extremely successful decade for the company. International sales grew sharply, especially in the US and Asian markets. The growth in US sales was also driven by the work of Massimo, Wanda, and Salvatore’s youngest son, who in 1982 moved to New York to work for the family’s commercial company,
By the end of the decade, Ferragamo was a well-established international brand and, for the first time, recruited managers from outside the family in a strategy geared towards cementing its market position and image.
Through it all, Wanda remained the humble matriarch, tending to the immense legacy of her husband’s passion and talent and creating new opportunities for the brand, and herself, that she could not have imagined as a young woman growing up in the small village of Bonito. Her early leadership stood as a hopeful example to women at a time that saw few women executives, let alone women owners of high-visibility companies. She remained anchored to the strong moral convictions her father had taught her, founded the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in 1995, and became active in educational charities for children, establishing the Ferragamo Foundation in 2013. She served as Ferragamo’s honorary chairwoman until she died in 2018.
It’s a wonderful story of a truly remarkable woman. Faithful to the end of her husband’s legacy and strong enough to lead it into the future.
