Ferragamo and Bulgari Make History

After eight decades of making shoes, leather goods, watches and fragrances, Salvatore Ferragamo, the famed Italian luxury good company named for the shoe maker who started it all in 1928, has turned its talents to jewelry. With a little help from Italian jeweler Gianni Bulgari, Ferragamo has created its first collection of fine jewelry.

“I was utterly fascinated by Salvatore’s curiosity and multicultural approach to shoe-making,” says Bulgari of his inspiration for the collection. But Bulgari chose not to make the association between fashion and jewelry literal. “My aim has been all along to interpret Ferragamo’s traditional icons in a non traditional way,” says Bulgari. (Read: no shoe charms.)

The jeweler even refused to interpret the era-defining rainbow wedge. “Creating a piece of jewelry out of a shoe, away from a trivial reproduction, was definitely challenging and needed some imagination!” he said. “It would be hard to mimic the stunning rainbow effect of the original with colored gemstones.”