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59November-December 2013
VICE-CHAIRM AN GIOVANNA FERRAGAMOhas a smile that
spreads across her face, and eyes that twinkle with a hint of
mischief. She looks across the room at Massimiliano Giornetti, the
firms creative director, and asks me: He is nice? She pauses as I
nod in agreement having just interviewed him then continues:
He is friendly, warm and approachable, very unusual for
designers.
We are sitting in comfortable surroundings in Forte dei Marmi, a
small town near Florence, with the mountains of Tuscany toweringover us in regal surreal glory. I have been invited to spend an
afternoon with members of the family and the brands leading
designer ahead of the launch of the latest Ferragamo perfume.
There are no airs and graces about Giovanna, despite her being
the daughter of the legendary Salvatore
Ferragamo. She looks at Giornetti fondly for amoment and then turns to me and says: Ask me
many questions. It is just you and me now.
The Tuscan-based brand has seen a
phenomenal rise in revenues and profits this year,
after demand from the Asia-Pacific area helped lift
its 2012 net profits by 30 percent to 106 million
euros ($137 million). Its yet another indication of
the resilience top luxury brands have shown
during the economic slowdown in Europe, helped
by demand from wealthy tourists from emerging
markets.According to Bloomberg, Ferragamos recent
growth spurt is largely due to markets on the
perimeter such as Indonesia, Vietnam and
especially China, where Ferragamo has doubled its number of stores
to about 66. In just a few years the Asia-Pacific region has become
the largest contributor to Ferragamos revenues (36 percent), maybe
not surprisingly since Goldman Sachs has predicted that China will
consume about 29 percent of the worlds total luxury goods by 2015,
surpassing Japan as the worlds top luxury brands market.
But according to Milton Pedraza, CEO of the New York-based
researcher, Luxury Institute LLC, the reason for Ferragamos higherrevenues is not just booming demand for luxury goods in developing
countries but also its great product line-up, the culture of the brand,
and how it builds relationships that allow it to gain greater
market share.
CLASSIC TONEVice-chairman
Giovanna Ferragamodoes not take an
active role indesigning the
creations now butdoes oversee the
process.
The Art of Being Italian
BY SINDHU NAIR
Ferragamo seems to have it all: heritage,Made in Italy exclusivity, and now impressive
inancial results. T Qatar meets the personalitiesbehind the brand.
On Heritage
Arena Qatar
IMAGECOURTSEY:FER
RAGAMO
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Pedraza acknowledges that the companys 2011 initial
public offering (IPO) gave the company more resources to
invest in stores across Asia, but feels that family traditions
and values were and are still the brands most powerful
marketing tool.
Ferragamo is a very consumer-centric brand, he
says, a brand that knows its consumer extremely well,with a deep-rooted relation with consumers one main
reason for the consistent success of the brand.
Giovanna Ferragamo would argue that coherence and
trust are among the values Ferragamo stands for. We
have always been very careful to be in touch with our
roots, says Giovanna. We have been very strict in our
principles of workmanship and credibility; and the brand
is synonymous with absolute integrity.
When Giovannas father Salvatore began his
shoemaking career a century ago, he was so passionate
and detail-oriented about his craft that he spent timestudying the anatomy of the foot, so as to be able to
produce the very best footwear, comfortable as well as
attractive.
Sixty-nine-year-old Giovanna, unlike her surviving
siblings, all of whom were very small when their father
passed away in 1960, has some memories of him.
He was the one to push me into the fashion arena, very
demanding in certain aspects of work while being open in
others, she says.
He shared a wonderful relation with his workmen,
Giovanna goes on. They were more like family. He usedto respect each person and felt that each one of them had
an important link to the end product and the brand.
While Salvatore made the brand famous with his iconic
shoes, other family members expanded the group to
include ready-to-wear, perfumes,
jewelry, leather goods and watches.But all of this was part of a bigger
plan.
My father was always telling us,
when all of you join the company, we will expand into
more countries and make so many more new products,
says Giovanna. He was already well known in the U.S. He
traveled a lot to Australia, to Japan and just before he
died he was studying the anatomy of the Asian feet. He
was open to expansion and was already planning for this.
I started the ready-to wear collection; my sister
opened the accessory line; and then we opened the mensline, she recounts. Each one of us, as we joined the
company, was expanding in new areas. The group has
grown a lot. Giovanna has stepped back from her
designing days she led the design team from the 1960s
to the 90s but she still oversees the creative side of
things. I enjoyed my time when I was doing it, she
HEIRLOOMAnevent held by
SalvatoreFerragamo in
honour of SophiaLoren, Rome,
February 25,1935.
THEN AND NOWClockwise from far left:The Ferragamo familywith Salvatore,the
creator of the brand; amodel walkingSalvatore FerragamosA/W mens collection;the whole Ferragamofamily.
IMAGESCOURTESY,FE
RRAGAMO,BANCADATIARCHIVIO,PHOTOGRAPHBYLOCCHIFIRENZE,FERRAGAMO
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remembers. Every collection was
like a test for us. There was so much
work involved, it was
very stimulating times.
With a strong and distinctive
fashion sense, Giovanna loves to mix
and match her clothes to achieve a
classic look with a twist of modernity.
Never boring though, she laughs. I always had to dressthe shoes, instead of doing it the other way around!
One most important link in the Ferragamo story is
Giovannas mother, Wanda Ferragamo. After Salvatores
death in 1960 Wanda, who had no experience of working,
was left not just to manage their five children but also to
steer this huge company, a job she seems to have done
really well. She served as the chairman of Salvatore
Ferragamo Italia S.p.A. until August 2006 and was its
director until June 2011, when the company went public.
She was clever and determined, and also passionate
about the brand her husband created, recalls Giovanna,adding: We called her The Boss.
The success of the brand is also attributed to CEO
Michele Norsa, appointed in 2006 with a 35-year track
record as executive manager of Italian family firms in
fashion (Benetton) and publishing (Rizzoli) and an IPO
for Italian fashion house Valentino under his belt. It was
Norsa who orchestrated Ferragamos IPO, selling about
22 percent of the company to fund an ambitious plan to
open 25 stores ten in China alone plus a
refurbishment of flagship stores in major world capitals
such as London and New York, according to INSEAD
Knowledge.
Norsa stressed the global importance of China when he
talked to INSEAD Knowledge this summer: Combined
with the growth of Europe and the United States, China
has become fundamental. In the next five to ten years we
will still see opportunities on the perimeter in China,
because second, third-tier Chinese cities are representing
this opportunity, he said, referring to domestic growth
within the country.
With turmoil and uncertainty in the global economy,
many observers questioned the timing of the IPO. But
Norsa and the family have proved the naysayers wrong,
with positive results over the past few years. A lot of
people were thinking that probably a new listing wouldonly happen in Asia or outside Europe. We proved there
were still opportunities for good companies, Norsa said.
The two successful IPOs, Valentino and Ferragamo, paved
the way for other Italian brands such as Brunello Cucinelli
and Moleskine to follow suit with listings on the Milan
stock exchange.
In his meeting with me, SF group president Ferruccio
Ferragamo, Giovannas brother, explains the strategic
thinking behind the IPO. We decided to go public on the
stock exchange because it seemed the most coherent
choice in terms of governance for a company such as ours,and aligned with our plans for global expansion.
Nevertheless, we decided to float the minimum
percentage of stock with the aim of keeping an absolute
majority of share capital to continue along the path of
development marked out by my family in recent years.
TOP TO BOTTOM
From top: DavidLee, SalvatoreFerragamo withmodels wearing hisinventions,Kimo,1951; left,Giovanna andFerruccioFerragamo at thelaunch of theirlatest perfume;below, Damigelle,prototype of abrocade ankle bootwith gold kid heels,created especially
for Sophie Loren,1957.
BEAUTY ANDDETAILSLeft, FreidaPinto,MassimilianoGiornetti, KarolinaKurkova at a recentevent; below,Vaporosa,prototype of a greysatin high heelpump embroideredwith pearls, silverand gold beads andrhinestone in aloral motif.
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COURTESYOFFERRAG
AMO
While cynics carped that the IPO would sound the death knell for
Ferragamos creativity and its Made in Italy cachet, nothing
drastic has happened at all to mar the companys performance or
damage the brands Italian exclusivity. From a manufacturing point
of view, the public offering obliges us to be increasingly efficient, and
we were committed to further increasing the groups profitability,says Ferruccio, adding that it was improved operational efficiency
that led to the upturn in SFs earnings.
Being a completely Made in Italy company is a strategic choice
in which we believe wholeheartedly, a choice made by my father
when he moved to Florence in 1927, for the very reason that he found
a unique heritage of craftsmanship and production excellence here.
Nothing is left to chance at Ferragamo,
and as far as generational change is
concerned, the family has a rule that only a
maximum of three members from each new
generation can join the company. We are a
huge family, which in its fourth generation
includes more than 70 members, says
Ferruccio.
And to be able to become part of the
company is no simple inheritance that can
be taken for granted. The aspirants need
to have a masters degree, have gained two
years work experience outside the
company, and lastly pass an admission
exam conducted by members of the family
working in the company.
At present, there are two members of
the third generation in the company: my
niece, Angelica Visconti, who is Retail and
Wholesale Director for Italy, and my son
James, who is Womens Leather Products
Director, he says. Reflecting on the fact that
the brand seems to have successfully
weathered many storms, Ferruccio feels the luxury goods sector has
felt the effects of the global recession a little less than others.
Looking at todays results, luxury goods and brands such as ours
have held up better, perhaps because of our consistent, diversified
presence in all the worlds markets, he says.
And is Ferragamos design creativity also holding up in todays
global fashion market?
Creative director Massimiliano Giornetti is said to have a flair for
doing the extraordinary, after his very imaginative move to launch a
collection inside the Louvre. For someone who had a distinct flair for
architecture but later decided that fashion was the best way to
express his creativity, Giornetti certainly has come a long way in
proving his instincts right. Thirteen years with the brand, and
Giornetti feels that craftsmanship and heritage are not just what
Ferragamo is about but are also part of his own upbringing and
conviction. The brand and the designer are so intimately connected
that it seems as if they both stand for the same ideals, almost at therisk of the creator losing a bit of his own identity to keep in with the
brands DNA.
Luxury, to Giornetti, is a matter of materials research, quality and
construction, right down to achieving maximum functionality of the
final product, and also finding special precious detailing to make the
brand exclusive. Which is why this years Ferragamo collection
caused excitement with the new modern deconstructed look for
which Giornetti seems to have found a passion. Gladiator boots,
tailored trench coats, wrap skirts and brocade pants brought out the
seasons edgy trend, without losing Ferragamos classy twist and its
love for neutral colors.
Fashion has become much more democratic according toGiornetti, and everyone now has access to it, making the work of
designers much more challenging. I have to think of consumers
who live around the world, and also understand that the consumer
has changed to become more conscious, and even bold, in their
fashion statement, he declares
Luxury goods and brands such as ours have held upbetter, says Ferruccio Ferragamo, perhaps because of
our consistent, diversiied presence in allthe worlds markets.
OLD AND NEWClockwisefrom top: Satin sandal withcage heel, photographedby Lorenzo Cicconi Massifrom the Ferragamomuseum; SalvatoreFerragamo Galuchat;
shoes and dress fromSalvatore Ferragamowomens A/W14collection.
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