At Milan Fashion Week, Maximilian Davis harkened back to Old Hollywood—when and where Ferragamo was born, making shoes for film stars through the mid-20th century. It was ’50s glamor through a futuristic lens: “alienated metallics and high shine,” in the words of the designer, grounded by archival silhouettes and materials and hardware.

The show was staged at the towering MiCo Convention Centre, its sculptural metal overhangs compounding that sense of exaggerated modernity. Davis’s garments provided the necessary contrast: sweetheart necklines, ball skirts, nipped waists, double-faced suit jackets. The palette, as promised, was skewed by silver lamé; archival prints were scanned and distorted, “to make them feel like heirloom pieces, taken from the past but brought into the future.” The presentation was a medley of American classics and cinematic newness, imagining what could lie ahead from a perspective rooted in the elegance of history.

Document offers a look behind the curtain at the moments leading up to Ferragamo’s Fall/Winter 2023 show—a play on tradition and fantasy, a love letter to the house’s original vision.