To any and all male fans of impeccable dressing, calling Massimo Ferrari simply a fashion shop or even a boutique is selling it short. Opened since 2006, Massimo Ferrari is the brainchild of an Italian-American couturier who won’t ever stop at anything short of perfection.
“People say that luxury clothes can’t be made or sold in Vietnam. I’m glad they say that. Because that means they can’t do it, whereas I can,” says Luis Antonio Torres III, the shop’s founder. There’s a lot more to his business than simply making and selling fine bespoke clothes for gentlemen of means and taste.
“Anyone can sell a piece of clothing. I sell a wardrobe,” he explains. “It takes a master artist to sell a wardrobe. You need to have taste and to listen to the customer.”
Massimo Ferrari began with one single core item in its arsenal: shoes. Fine shoes made from Italian and French imported leather, handcrafted and individually dyed in Vietnam under the strict supervision of a Neiman Marcus veteran. According to Luis, ‘dress shoes’ made in Vietnam aren’t really worthy of the name by proper standards. They are only called so for marketing purposes and anyone without knowledge of shoemaking won’t know better. Dress shoes made in assembly lines all have chunky shapes and heels instead of the curved silhouette that proper dress shoes have, since the machines can only press-stamp specific rectangular shapes (complicated vertical curves are beyond them). The nuances between a proper pair of handmade dress shoes and machine-stamped shoes are not easily noticeable to your average Vietnamese, so the majority of dress shoes in Vietnam follow the same low standard of the factory dress shoes.
And with this strict philosophy, his dress shoes proved immensely popular and following on that success, Luis rapidly expanded the business and product lines to other fashion brands and items that include bags, glasses, dress shirts, and more.
Oi’s Pick:
Two-tone leather dress shoes (USD 560+)
A back to basic must-have, a pair of handcrafted dress shoes made from crushed Italian leather. No two pairs made by Massimo Ferrari are ever the same because the colors are individually developed and the shoes take two and a half days of continuous work to finish.
Massimo Ferrari
42A1 Tran Quoc Thao, D3
www.massimoferrariboutique.com
