FLORENCE, THE DAVID, & ME: Salvatore Ferragamo and Marilyn Monroe

I am absolutely loving my Italian Fashion Design class here in Florence. Yesterday we visited the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum which is housed beneath the Salvatore Ferragamo store on what can only be described as the Fifth Avenue of Florence. Ferragamo was born in Naples and became a gifted shoe designer and maker by the age of eleven. Ferragamo studied the anatomy of the foot and once he realized the weight of the body was supported mostly by the arch of the foot, he designed and patented an ingenious shoe structure with a steel rod between the soles which would reinforce and support the weight of the body.

He then moved to Hollywood where he became the shoe designer to the stars; including Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, and Marilyn Monroe. He was so precise in the creation of his shoes that he would cast the foot of each client in order to ensure a perfect fit. When he was hired to make a pair of shoes whether they were for an actress, member of a royal family, or just a wealthy woman, he would always create two pairs of the exact same shoe; one for the client, and one to keep for himself. Thus in his archives remained some fourteen thousand pairs of shoes, which his children arranged to have displayed in what is now the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum. He was truly ahead of his time in his shoe designs and creations. He created the first cork wedge, the first shoes to have color other than brown or black, as well as the first platform shoes.

In the museum they have an exhibition space that changes every couple of months. It just so happens that right now there is a Marilyn Monroe exhibit, which was really powerful. Although Ferragamo never met Marilyn, she was a consistent buyer of his shoes and would always get the exact same pair; a simple but sexy pump, in many different colors. The exhibit displayed images of Marilyn throughout her life and career; from her beginnings in Playboy and as a model, to her movies and personal life as well as her emotional instability.

The beginning of the exhibit consisted of a round room with images and videos of Marilyn during her peak of fame, surrounded by a large atomic bomb shaped disco ball; comparing her life and career to that of the effect of an atomic bomb, forever lasting and seemingly unavoidable. From there the exhibit went on to compare Marilyn's beauty to that of sculptures from antiquity, as well as High Renaissance paintings like Botticelli's Birth of Venus. She supposedly studied the likeness of historical representations of beauty, and sought to recreate a similarly classical and everlasting impression of herself. A more disturbing room followed which was dedicated to her death, or apparent suicide.

The final room of the exhibit had a large screen playing highlights from her movies, surrounded by many of her most famous cinematic costumes; including the pink satin dress that she wore while singing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend," in the 1953 film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," as well as the infamous ivory pleated dress from her 1955 film "The Seven Year Itch," among many others. I absolutely loved seeing all of her costumes up close and not separated from the public by a glass wall; a metaphor of the more intimate way in which the entire exhibition was set up to expose the life of Marilyn.

Although I've been told it was a more controversial exhibit than the city of Florence wanted, I found it tragic yet inspiring and I'm so glad I got a chance to see it.