Salvatore Ferragamo Launches Fashion Foundation

ITALIAN fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo has established a foundation that aims to encourage and educate prospective fashion talent.

The foundation, entitled Fondazione Ferragamo, will be based in the label's birth place, Florence, and will involve a curriculum based on the values of the label's namesake, Salvatore. Wanda Ferragamo - his widow - said of the foundation: "Young people are the engine of any society, the force that ensures continuity and the future. They must have the chance to demonstrate their worth and their abilities."

In addition to offering training and support, the foundation will also grant awards and scholarships to selected students and arrange cultural events in collaboration with the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum.

"Adults, institutions and businesses are responsible for giving them these opportunities," Mrs Ferragamo continued. "Providing them with know-how, creativity, technology and, above all, the desire to move forward, to overcome all obstacles - values exemplified by my husband's life and his life's work."