Ferragamo’s New Creative Director Is Not Interested in Fashion Hoodies

Paul Andrew, the newly installed creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, came out swinging. “Men’s fashion today, I think it’s in a really atrocious state, quite frankly,” he said. “You go into any so-called luxury fashion house, and menswear is predominantly about hoodies and sweatpants and tank tops and T-shirts with logos all over them. There’s no difference between that and what the high-street brands are doing. I don’t really find that luxurious.” Shots fired.

We were in the Florence Chamber of Commerce building, which was mercifully air-conditioned—outside, oppressive Tuscan humidity had descended upon the opening day of Pitti Uomo. But the heat, as it were, was on: It was about seven hours from Andrew’s first menswear show as creative director, and he was contemplating model Kiki Willems as she walked across the marble floor in a pair of white cutout ankle boots and a matching embroidered lace dress. (Andrew, who was promoted from head of women’s ready-to-wear and footwear six months ago, couldn’t resist sprinkling a few women’s looks into the show.) His vision of what true luxury is starts here.

Andrew didn’t say who these “luxury” competitors are, but it’s clear who he’s talking about: the Guccis and Balenciagas of the world, whose sales have skyrocketed under designers who haven’t been afraid to pour jet fuel on their respective houses' codes—which means, yes, they have designed a few heavily branded hoodies. “My approach to men’s fashion is very different,” Andrew said, gesturing at the model board, where there’s not a pair of jeans or sweats to be found among the Talented Mr. Ripley-esque palette. There’s a T-shirt—and it’s made of Napa leather. The faces on the board skew older than we’ve come to expect, too, Willems notwithstanding. Legendary art director Peter Saville (he of Joy Division’s cover art and international fashion houses’ new logos) was set for his runway debut, as was Michi Berger-Sandhofer, a deputy chairman at Sotheby’s and friend of Andrew’s.

Andrew’s mandate as creative director is not just to modernize the existing Ferragamo customer—it’s to bring in a new generation. You know, the one that’s copping hoodies like there’s a cotton shortage. But talk is just talk. So later that night, in the Piazza della Signoria (you know, the square in Florence), Andrew really came out swinging: The opening look featured that Napa tee with a creamy pair of workwear-inspired belted cargo pants in a tailoring wool-cotton fabric. “Once you’ve worn those sort of sport-inspired clothes, it’s hard to go back to tailored, fitted garments, and I don't necessarily see that coming back in a strong way,” Andrew had noted before the show (while wearing, I may add, beat-up black Carhartts).

Workwear, he says, is a way to reach that younger generation—a strategy that felt even more promising when those pants emerged on the runway. They looked of a quality that will more than justify the inevitably high price tag—and, more importantly, with an effortless slouch, they looked utterly cool. It’s not really workwear, but it’s not what you think of when you think “Ferragamo trouser,” either. Plus, the model was wearing one of a series of sunglasses reminiscent of Oakley blades. The setting was a nod to Ferragamo’s Florentine heritage (it is the first time—and last, apparently—a brand has been able to hold a show in the Piazza della Signoria), but the shades were a sign that Andrew is looking forward.

There was also a tanned leather vest that is all but destined for Dev Hynes’s wardrobe, and a series of tight short-sleeve ribbed knits you can imagine seeing on a skater with a modeling contract. Speaking of which, It-guy Evan Mock (the pink-haired skater and model) was sitting in the front row next to Ferragamo fan Cole Sprouse, wearing the new Ferragamo knit tank. That those guys will wind up wearing these clothes is already a small victory. In the past, Ferragamo’s menswear runway looks didn’t tend to make it to production. Another part of Andrew’s mandate, he says, is to “bring that fashion into the stores, so that a more fashion-forward customer can come in and actually find things” that they’re seeing on the runway, in magazines, and on certified cool kids like Mock.

One piece that was notably absent from Andrew’s Ferragamo runway? The iconic bit loafer. Andrew landed his original Ferragamo job on the success of his award-winning eponymous footwear brand, and he espouses a philosophy of “toe-to-head dressing.” At the show, the strength of the clothes almost obscured the fact that he’s completely overhauling Ferragamo's men’s footwear program. There will still be your father’s favorite loafers, of course. But Andrew wanted to showcase a brand-new silhouette: a hybridized sneaker featuring a classic bench-made upper and a thick vulcanized trainer sole. Though Salvatore Ferragamo might not know what to make of it, Andrew says the sneaker is a nod to the brand founder’s appreciation of technology: “If you look at the shoes he made in the ’20s and ’30s now, you’d think they were from the ’60s and ’70s. He was ahead of the game by using state-of-the-art technology from that time, but always the best Italian craftsmanship and materials. So it’s got this high-tech, high-craft approach, which is really the philosophy here today.”

There are surely people who would like to see Andrew juice Ferragamo profits—which fell 14 percent in 2018—as quickly as possible. Would he be able to do so by adopting a high-street strategy? Maybe. But while Andrew isn’t trying to tear down Ferragamo’s Florentine walls, neither is he a designer solely interested in his uncompromising vision, profits be damned. His work in the womenswear department, he says, has already led to increased sales.

But perhaps the riskiest move of his grand debut made Andrew’s priorities as creative director clear: Ferragamo’s iconic “Gancini” symbol was tough to spot. Those belts with the honking Ferragamo symbol? See ya. Andrew’s short-term goal for menswear, he says, is to define a clear aesthetic vision, so that when you see the collection—logo or not—you know that it’s Ferragamo. “That takes time,” he acknowledges. “It doesn’t happen overnight.” With Tuesday night’s show at Pitti Uomo, it’s game on.

Originally Appeared on GQ