Italian Fashion and Culture Post 3

For this week's visit, we went to the Uffizi Gallery, which is located surprisingly close to our school in the Piazza della Signoria. The Uffizi houses the most works of art of any museum in Florence and is considered to be a must see for tourists to the city. It was constructed in the 16th century as offices and also included part of the passageway that went from Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace.
Our tour of the Uffizi was specifically geared toward fashion students, so we were given an insight as to the meaning of Renaissance clothing and how it is used in paintings. We got to see paintings from Botticelli, Michelangelo and even some from da Vinci. The Uffizi also has a great view overlooking the Arno, but it is very busy. I am planning a trip of my own early in the morning very soon.

Italian Fashion and Culture Post 2

This week we were able to visit the Santa Croce Leather School. I was particularly interested in this visit because it is so close to our apartment, and I had also just visited the church the day prior. The Leather School occupies the former dormitories for the Franciscan friars who occupied Santa Croce in the Renaissance. It became a leather school after World War II as a way to give orphans a way to make a living and has since become an international school.
Our tour of the school was lead by one of the founder's daughters, who also was a designer of some of the bags we saw. We were able to see how leather was gilded with gold by hand, how the artisans handcrafted each bag from the school and the different kinds of leather that they use, including goatskin, alligator, ostrich, and python. It was very interesting to see the amount of time and effort that goes into crafting these beautiful things.

Italian Fashion and Culture Post 1

On Thursday we were able to visit the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum here in Florence. Ferragamo was an immensely talented footwear designer from Italy from the 1920s to the 1960s and many of his clients were Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. The front room of the museum has a case containing the wooden foot models that Ferragamo used to create his famous clients shoes. Ferragamo's shoes were both beautiful and innovative.
I liked the fact that he sought to make shoes that were not simply beautiful, but also comfortable for the wearer. He created an invention to distribute the wearer's weight over the arch of the foot rather than it all being in the ball or heel of the foot. There were also a number of hats from a British milliner that were chosen or created to complement different shoes. It was interesting to see different aspects of design drawing inspiration from one another and complementing each other so well.