Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898 in Bonito, a village about 100 kilometres from Naples, the eleventh of fourteen children. Since he was a little child, Salvatore dreamed of being a shoemaker. He would spend hours watching the local cobbler at work, although his father did not approve as shoemaking was considered the humblest of trades.

The Foundation’s main mission is to offer young people, who focus their activity on fashion, design and the highest forms of Italian handcraftsmanship, opportunities of professional growth and training in line with values and principles at the root of Made in Italy concept and on which Salvatore Ferragamo based his work.