My Very Fashionable Day

Happy October! I hope you have a wonderful month filled with lots of friends, food, and love (and of course Halloween!). I started my month off in style – I went to my very first museum that displayed art!!

Before I headed off for my museum adventure, I had a lazy morning/afternoon writing and researching my gender paper. Whoever said that you do not study during your study abroad must have not taken my course load – I am up to my eyeballs in research. Beluga whales, WWII propaganda posters, and sketches of microscopes are filling up my documents folder on my laptop, all waiting to be spun into their respective papers. Hopefully I will be finished with the researching part soon so I can write the papers and be done with it…

The fun part of my day was when my roommate and I went to a very cool art museum – Il Museo Salvatore Ferragamo. For those of you who do not know Mr. Ferragamo, he was called the shoemaker to the stars – Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Greta Garbo are some of the famous women who have had their shoes custom-made by this man. He actually had wooden lasts (a wood model of the persons feet) for every one of his clients so he could make any shoe in their perfect size.

The Museum!

Since the museum is so small, special exhibits actually replace the normal collection. Our visit coincided with the special exhibit on Greta Garbo. They displayed shoes that Ferragamo made her (she has such amazing taste) and clothing she wore (she loved Valentina). Her style was so different – menswear and big hats mixed with frilly floral dresses and flat shoes (she started the ballet flat trend). It was incredible to see some of her wardrobe – would make any fashionista jealous.

After walking around the museum, we walked upstairs to the Ferragamo store. Inside the store, there is a boutique that sells shoes that are actually replicated patterns that Ferragamo designed for some of his clients. Ferragamo designed the shoe for an actress and the company kept the sketches. Now, still making them by hand, cobblers take the designs and make the shoes. They are so incredible! The salesperson was pulling out shoes to show us and it was amazing how they really did fit the personalities of the person who was going to wear them. I fell in love with this pair of butterscotch suede pumps that were a replica of shoes that Ferragamo made for Marilyn Monroe. They were so beautiful and showed real craftsmanship. Shoes are truly an art form.

After wandering around the (huge) Ferragamo shop, we walked home and made dinner. I made lemon chicken and my absolute favorite, pasta with peas! It was really awesome, simple food. Finally, we ended the night with a friends, walking around Florence and celebrating an amazing October to come.

Yummy Dinner!

Ciao!