Growing up Ferragamo

It's a well-known fact in the fashion industry that the Italians are all about keeping the business in the family. While names like Versace, Missoni and Zegna all fly the family flag, no other brand sums up this ethos more than Ferragamo.

It was the family's matriarch, 93-year-old Wanda Ferragamo, who transformed her husband's small shoe business into a global success. The firm went public in 2011.

"The business was not very big when we were growing up," recalls her grandson, James Ferragamo, who visited Hong Kong recently.

"When my grandfather passed away in the 1960s, there was only the shoe business. Then my grandmother started working, as did her six children. The girls worked on the product and the sons worked on developing different markets. She is the woman who led everything."

The dashing 42-year-old (the son of Wanda and Salvatore's eldest son, Ferrucio) has been working in the company since he was 27 and is director of women's leather products. James wanted to join the family business ever since he was young.

"When I was 10, I went to the factory and made a pair of shoes for my grandmother. They were a pair of Vara flats in black patent leather with a gold bow. I ruined three pairs before I actually got it right.