Ferragamo’s new women’s boutique, which has just opened in Milan, is a place that celebrates almost 100 years of Made in Italy, of constant innovation, design and surprising inventions: it is no coincidence that some of the brilliant shoemaker’s historic models are on display, such as the gold leather and nylon fishing line sandal (which won him the Neiman Marcus Award in 1947).
Ferragamo has entrusted the project to Vincent Van Duysen, an architect with a rigorous style, a spokesman for essential elegance closely linked to materials and sensory qualities: important affinities for the House and for Maximilian Davis, at the helm of Ferragamo’s creativity from 2022.
These fundamental values have given rise to a project of timelessness, elegance and refined warmth, open to surprise and experimentation. The setting is a building steeped in history: Palazzo Carcassola Grandi, originally built in the 15th century and renovated at the beginning of the 19th century. Van Duysen has intervened with the utmost respect for the spaces – a sequence of rooms – working with materials, light and rhythm.
Inside, in keeping with the concept of ‘creative community’ that Davis is so passionate about, Van Duysen has incorporated the work of a number of young contemporary designers/artists. From the outside, you can see a niche completely covered in blue ceramic elements: Acquario is a work by Andrea Mancuso/Analogia Project, also the author of a table in the boutique’s entrance area (designed under the supervision of Nilufar gallery and its founder Nina Yashar).
In other rooms you will find Corallium, a collection of tables by Andrea Anastasio (realised in collaboration with the Giustini/Stagetti gallery, Rome), which uses leather threads to “sew” stones, chromatic islands materially related to the space. And then there are the unique pieces by JoAnn Tan, an exercise in virtuosic and refined upcycling: display furniture upholstered by hand with hundreds of leather fringes (scraps recovered from Ferragamo’s production facilities) and “insect” poufs with raffia embroidery or leather patchwork inspired by zoomorphic archive pieces, objects that combine past and present.
The operation is conceived as the first chapter of a project that, for each future opening, will involve the collaboration of different creative minds. A search for ideas and talents to create, step by step, a new aesthetic.
