Ferragamo: Shoe Tribute to Warhol

Throughout his career, Andy Warhol sought out commercial projects, including silk-screened portraits of fashion celebrities, like Giorgio Armani, and advertisements for luxury perfumes, like Chanel No. 5. (1st image: parisconnected blog; 2nd image: warhol-art blog)

Shoes were also a subject of his, starting in 1955 when he was hired by I. Miller to breathe new life into their ad campaign. Many of his illustrations were collected into a book called “Shoes, Shoes, Shoes.”

He returned to the subject of shoes in 1980 with his diamond dust series (not really diamond dust, which was too chalky, but crushed glass). Colorful shoe images against a glittering black background. These are my favorite!

In a deserving twist of fate, Salvatore Ferragamo, a historic luxury shoe company with a tradition of “shoeing” the stars of old Hollywood, is issuing a special edition of the Salvatore, the asymmetric lace-up calfskin brogue that Andy Warhol wore while painting in his studio in the eighties.

The special edition model comes complete with white, red, green, and pink paint splatters, faithful replicas of the shoes the Ferragamo family bought at a Christie’s auction for $7,800 in June 2006.

The style of Warhol’s brogue was the only men’s style designed by Salvatore Ferragamo, who wore them himself, and died in 1960.

Available at the end of March at certain flagship locations for $990, the shoe will be part of Ferragamo’s Creations collection, based on historical designs from their archives reissued in limited editions twice a year.