Ferragamo's New Shoes Will Run You $13,500

After making some of the world's best brogues and loafers for almost 90 years, the Italian luxury house is upping the ante with a new program called Tramezza Made to Order. It allows its customers full creative control over their footwear in Ferragamo's entirely hand-made Tramezza line, it's highest-end offering. So if you've been unable to find, say, a pair of navy blue ostrich monkstraps or brown suede boots with a palladium buckle, this new service is well-equipped to make them for you. And that level of customization is especially important right now, when expressing a sense of individuality is key to nailing personal style.

"We live in the age of social media—fast paced, self procured, and personally customized. A time when newness can quickly become as disposable as it was desirable," said James Ferragamo, the founder's grandson and one of the brand's product directors. "With true luxury there's a finer appreciation for quality, design, a sense of respecting the craft from which it was born. Tramezza Made to Order is a nod to the Ferragamo man's own creativity and a dedication to his sense of longevity."

But there's a lot of work that goes into creating these shoes. And fine craftsmanship doesn't come cheap. The Tramezza MTO program starts at $1,500 for a pair of black cap-toe calfskin oxfords and goes all the way up to $13,500 for the crocodile double monkstrap shoes you see here. (All told, there are over 300 steps that a group of 50 craftsmen execute before the shoes are ready to wear.) Here's what Ferragamo's workshop pours into some of the planet's most exclusive kicks.

Everything starts with a last, the wooden, foot-shaped molds used to build hand-made shoes. While Tramezza isn't a bespoke service, it does have access to nearly a century of Ferragamo's fit studies, which means finding a last that fits your foot is as easy as taking a few measurements.

Once you've given Ferragamo your preferences for shoe style, material, color, and hardware (which you can do in stores and online), the brand's shoe workshop in Italy gets to work creating a pattern that it uses to cut the leather pieces needed to make the shoe. Once those fragments are ready, they're sewn together and assembled on a last. It takes four days to stretch and shape the leather to ensure that it retains the right shape.

The Materials

Tramezza offers smooth and shrunken calfskin (with the shrunken option, you can really see the grain of the leather), as well as suede, ostrich, and crocodile. Each piece has to be sanded precisely before they're all sewn together, to prevent the resulting shoe from being too thick—and uncomfortable—along its seams. For the monkstraps, customers can choose buckles made of antiqued gold, palladium, or ruthenium.

The Handwork

After the leather upper is assembled and fitted over the last, a cordwainer will combine it with a leather insole, a mid-sole, and the shank, a the metal part of the shoe designed to support your arches. All of the leather pieces are sewn to the welt, a strip of leather shaped like the outline of the shoe. Then a leather outsole is sewn to the welt, closing the shoe. This construction technique allows for the sole to be replaced when it's worn out.

The leather Tramezza MTO shoes are made from is raw when it hits the last, meaning each shoe has to have its color applied individually. This process can take for days depending on the look you're after: one day for a base coat, another for a second coat, a third for any portions of the shoe that need a darker coloring, and a fourth for a final polish. Even the sole gets pigment applied by hand.

The Finished Product

It takes about 12 weeks for a pair of these made to order shoes to go from a few pieces of leather to something you can wear. But it's worth the wait: the shoes are shipped in a box bearing their new owner's name, and customers have the choice of stamping the soles with their initials, a Prince Harry-level style move that adds a layer of personality. All of which makes these shoes a lot more special than something you can get at your local mall.

Up next: How to Shine Your Shoes the Right Way

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