Sustainability is an all-round value for Ferragamo, with social aspects high on the agenda. As anticipated for the Chinese New Yearand Valentine’s Day projects, the arrival of 2021 marks the start of a creative multimedia journey for the brand, its various stages dedicated to promoting and encouraging creativity and diversity, collaborating with local artists and communities and linking art, culture and fashion, all constants in the Ferragamo DNA and mission.
The star of this new chapter is the famous Ferragamo Gancini monogram, in a reworked version that is fresh and engaging: Gancini Iconic. Launched with the Pre-Spring 2021 season, this creative composition features on footwear, bags, small leather goods, silk and ready-to-wear. The unique design of the iconic Gancini symbol is the focus of a series of intersections that create a graphic pattern emphasized by black and white.
Following the Gancini Iconic trail, Ferragamo has landed in Shanghai and Hong Kong, on a journey of exploration into curious local traditions that will continue with more surprising stages.
In Shanghai, Ferragamo collaborated with Master Huang Hongyu, who is carrying forward the tradition of hand-made Chinese lanterns. While Hong Kong will see the turn of the Dotes architecture duo and 4 local artists.
The Lantern Festival is held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which in 2021 falls on Friday 26 February. This is the last day of the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year.
In collaboration with the lantern artist Huang Hongyu, Ferragamo celebrated the Spring Festival with a series of themed installations in its Shanghai Center boutique.
Special Gancini lanterns will be produced for the occasion as decoration for articles from the Gancini andGancini Iconic PS21 selection in the store, together with others featuring the bucolic Ferragamo silk prints.
For the Lunar New Year, the streets were decorated in red and with lanterns to create an abundant festive mood as symbols of joy and hope for the new year.
Hongyu is the second generation in a family of master lantern creators. He comes from the city of Foshan in Guangdong province, famous for its hand manufacture of these colourful articles. There is so much love for this ancient art that it was included on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008.
The Gancini icon was integrated into the design of the lanterns in a creative fusion of East and West, tradition and contemporaneity.
In Hong Kong, Ferragamo opened a travelling pop-up truck for Gancini Iconic products. This truck is inspired by the traditional bingsutts, literally “ice rooms”, the historic cafés that were very popular in the 1950s and 60s, serving refreshments in the form of typical iced drinks and food.
For the Gancini truck, Ferragamo has collaborated with Dotes, an emerging duo comprising Justin Chow and Ka Chi Law (specialising in creative dialogue between cultural issues, craftsmanship and progress), imagining a modern-day bingsutt inspired by the Ferragamo monogram. Ideal fusion of different traditions in an innovative synthesis between brand and location.
The Gancini pattern, in a colour palette featuring the pop shades typical of bingsutts completely covered the inside of the truck and also the diner’s traditional furnishings such as the fridges and counters, which for the occasion turned into display units for the collection.
The Gancini Truck parked in three key streets in the old Sheung Wan district, birthplace to the culture surrounding the bingsutt, one of the most symbolic in this city’s lively mix of cultures.
Reflecting the full support that Salvatore Ferragamo gives local artists, the Gancini Bing Sutt Truck was not just a pop-up truck – it was also an art gallery.
Thanks to a call for submissions from artists who make up the Central West Hong Kong (CWHK is a platform that backs galleries, artists and curators, with strong stimulus for the local art scene), 4 bingsutt-related works have been selected and were on show in the truck:
_the personal memory of the rising star in painting Afa Annfa linked to “Sugar Cubes”,
_the colourful painting by Wai Wai, “Bing Sutt”, depicting the traditional objects found in these diners;
_the photo by Romain Jacquet Lagrèze, “Hong Kong Culture & Emerging Culture”, which captures various store signs in Hong Kong, testimony to the transformation of this city over time;
_“MongKok Disco Tailor”, by the English photographer based in HK Keith MacGregor, which reflects the visual contrast between the British and Chinese cultures.
Ferragamo organized a special treasure hunt with CWHK to promote visits to the CWHK galleries and the exhibition in the Gancini Truck.
A cultural event lasting several days, a real chance for sharing and connection, in which Ferragamo collaborates with those entrenched in the creative fabric of Hong Kong. A chance for the city’s inhabitants to rediscover important local traditions, like the bingsutt, that are diminishing in modern city life.
Art knows no boundaries. When modernity meets traditions and different cultures can dialogue, creativity is sparked.
Salvatore Ferragamo believes strongly in artistry and community, focal points of an inclusive, sustainable future.
Because cultural heritage is a legacy for all, and access to it is fundamental.
