"When I started working, in Italy there weren't many women leading the companies. Today it is different, and I am happy with it, even though I am aware of what this entails. All women work, only some of them do their job. I work outside the home. Housewives still have to keep accounts like an accountant, decorate like an interior designer, cook like a chef and organize the house like a CEO, all while also doing the job of wife and mother. We women we do everything, no matter where and where our office is ". These are the reflections of Wanda Ferragamo, who after having lost her husband, Salvatore Ferragamo, founder of the homonymous company founded in 1927, took over the reins, allowing it to grow and become what it is today: one of the most loved luxury houses ,a company listed on the stock exchange since 2011, at the top of which as CEO, since 2006 there is one of his sons, Ferruccio Ferragamo. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of this special woman, who died in 2018, the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum, the Ferragamo Foundation and the Salvatore Ferragamo company are planning to create a biographical book and an exhibition that will open on May 19, 2022, from title Women in balance.
The goal, as Wanda Ferragamo would have liked, is to also talk about other women and other talents, who during the years of the Italian economic boom, when Wanda becomes an entrepreneur, contributed to the construction of a different society than to the historical context from which they came from: women of professions, culture, science who forged their sensitivity and identity, to interpret that present that was profoundly changing. Women in balance was recognized as having a high scientific and civil value, so much so that it received the patronage of the Committee for anniversaries of national interest of the Mission Structure - Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
On December 18, 1921, Wanda Miletti Ferragamo was born. From 1960 to 2018, when she disappeared, she was the guide of the maison. A woman who knew how to raise her children and at the same time commit herself to work with equal love. In August 1960, after the death of her beloved husband, Wanda decided to take over the presidency of the company, despite the numerous children, some of whom were still small. She chose to carry on her husband's project, with the aim of strengthening the dream that had led Salvatore to America, then to Tuscany, to Florence, the city of choice for both. Wanda Miletti was born into a middle-class family in Bonito, the same small town in Irpinia where Salvatore was born. His mother Giovanna was very sweet, a lover of music, a wise administrator of the family assets and an excellent cook.His father Fulvio was the doctor and mayor of the town. He soon lost his beloved brother and shortly thereafter his mother. But still very young she met Salvatore who in the summer of 1940, had gone to see Dr. Miletti on one of his visits to his country of origin. Wanda welcomed the most famous shoemaker in the world, telling him: "You must be the famous Salvatore Ferragamo. Congratulations on the magnificent contribution you have made to feminine elegance". Ferragamo was struck by those words and addressing his sister accompanying him in English, he said: "This girl is going to be my wife".he had gone to see Dr. Miletti on one of his visits to his country of origin. Wanda welcomed the most famous shoemaker in the world, telling him: "You must be the famous Salvatore Ferragamo. Congratulations on the magnificent contribution you have made to feminine elegance". Ferragamo was struck by those words and addressing his sister accompanying him in English, he said: "This girl is going to be my wife".he had gone to see Dr. Miletti on one of his visits to his country of origin. Wanda welcomed the most famous shoemaker in the world, telling him: "You must be the famous Salvatore Ferragamo. Congratulations on the magnificent contribution you have made to feminine elegance". Ferragamo was struck by those words and addressing his sister accompanying him in English, he said: "This girl is going to be my wife".
Salvatore was 42, Wanda 18. On November 9, 1940, five months after their first meeting, Wanda and Salvatore got married in the church of Santa Lucia in Naples. After a few days of honeymoon spent in Sorrento and Amalfi, the couple arrive in Florence, in their new home in the hills of Fiesole. Three children are born, Fiamma, Giovanna and Ferruccio, to whom Fulvia, Leonardo and Massimo will be added in the following years. Wanda becomes a perfect housekeeper. In the meantime, Florence becomes the center of Italian fashion and the Ferragamo store is once again the destination of an international clientele.
Wanda meets some famous clients such as Audrey Hepburn, whom she invites to her villa in Fiesole.
In 1947 he accompanied Salvatore to the United States, to Dallas, when he received the coveted Neiman Marcus Award, the Oscar of fashion, together with Christian Dior.
But he knows nothing about administration, sales and products.
For this reason, when Salvatore falls ill and dies, he thinks he is not up to running the company.
However, she found the strength to go on with the support of her two eldest daughters who had already started working with their father.
Wanda, assisted by Salvatore Ferragamo's children and nephew, is responsible for the international expansion of the brand, the industrialization of footwear, the diversification of products, the choice of stores to open in strategic locations.