Salvatore Ferragamo Gold Charm Bracelet: Spotting 1980s Vintage in Tropical Style
My 1980s Salvatore Ferragamo gold-plated charm bracelet from the Arezzo antique market, and what I look for in vintage costume jewellery.
This is my Salvatore Ferragamo charm bracelet from the 1980s. It is gold-plated costume jewellery, and I bought it at the Fiera in Arezzo, the antique market.
Each charm is a tiny Ferragamo shoe, and every one is engraved. For me, that is the first thing to look at on a piece like this. Detail that fine is how you tell the good costume jewellery of the 1980s from a poor imitation.
Why shoes?
Salvatore Ferragamo was a shoemaker. He set up his house in Florence in 1927, and shoes are what made the name. So a bracelet hung with tiny shoes is the house in miniature.
How I tell an original
After the engraving I look at the stamp. Then I look at the era: does the piece belong to the 1980s? I have visited the Ferragamo museum in Florence, and I know an original from a fake.
Wearing it
At Pitti Uomo, women in their fifties and sixties could not take their eyes off this bracelet. The same happens in the cafés in Tuscany.
In the video, filmed in Tuscany, I show you what I look for when I am hunting for vintage costume jewellery, and what heat and humidity do to a plated piece. I spend my winters in South East Asia, and I still want to wear my jewellery there.
Plated jewellery in the heat
Heat and humidity are hard on a plated piece. Sweat, sunscreen and salt water all wear at the plating. So take it off before you swim, wipe it dry after wearing it, and keep it in a pouch, away from the damp.
Don’t bury your gold: wear it.
