Wanda Ferragamo, who has died aged 96, took over the family shoemaking business when her husband, Salvatore, died in 1960, and with their children she turned it into a global business empire.
Her husband, the son of a poor farmer, made his first pair of shoes for his sister when he was nine and in the early 1920s moved to California, where he made cowboy boots for Hollywood Westerns and sandals for Cecil B DeMille biblical epics. As well as being elegant, they were so comfortable that he was soon getting orders from stars for shoes they could wear off set.
By 1927, demand had grown so large that he returned to Italy, where skilled labour was more readily available. He opened a small factory in Florence, and in 1940, aged 42, married the 18-year-old Wanda Miletti.
The daughter of a doctor, she was born on December 18 1921, at Bonito, a village east of Naples. Although Salvatore came from the same village, they did not meet until 1940.
He met her in his home village during a visit to Dr Miletti, then serving as Bonito's mayor. "He came to my house with his sister," Wanda recalled, "and my father was not at home, so I welcomed them. And I expressed my appreciation for what he had done for fashion, and he was very surprised, and he turned to his sister and said, 'This girl is going to be my wife'."
Salvatore's version was slightly different. Dr Miletti had been at home and the two men fell to discussing the shape of the foot. Ferragamo asked Wanda if he could use her for a shoe-fitting demonstration and fell instantly in love when he saw that she "had one toe peeping out of her stocking''.
Married in 1940, they spent their wedding night in a Sorrento hotel, watching the Allied bombing of Naples. Returning to Florence, the couple survived an attempted occupation of their home in nearby Fiesole by the Germans and bombing by the Allies.
In the 1940s and 1950s Salvatore Ferragamo patented about 350 innovations, including the famous cork-soled wedge, created when steel shortages meant that there were no shanks to make high heels.
He made boots and shoes for Mussolini and for Eva Braun, and his clients came to include the Duchess of Windsor, Sophia Loren, Greta Garbo, Eva Peron and Marilyn Monroe.
Until 1960, Wanda Ferragamo led the comfortable life of the wife of a wealthy businessman and mother of their six children. When her husband died aged 62 of liver cancer, however, then 38 years old and with her children ranging in age from two to 17, she decided to take his place. "My instinct was to take good care of the financial position," she said, "because I was afraid that without Salvatore the company would go down."
One by one her children, and later several grandchildren, joined her at the firm. Her eldest daughter Fiamma, as chief designer, invented the Vara pump, which became the company's most popular item. Wanda's four other children also took important roles as operations expanded to include bags, spectacles, watches, perfumes, designer collections, ready-to-wear, even hotel management. Salvatore Ferragamo SpA went public in 2011 and has hundreds of boutiques in 26 countries.
She stepped down as chairman in 2006 but went into work every day because, she said, it was in his office that she felt closest to her husband.
In 1995 she helped to found the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, and she remained head of the Ferragamo Foundation, which supports young Italian artisans. In 2004 she was awarded Italy's Cavaliere di Gran Croce.
Wanda Ferragamo never remarried and was predeceased by two of her daughters, Fiamma, in 1998, and Fulvia in April this year. Her other children survive her.
1921-2018..