Liberace Extravaganza! by Connie Furr Soloman

Author:Connie Furr Soloman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Liberace in a fully beaded and rhinestoned costume with a matching cape.

Shoemaker to the Stars:

Pasquale Di Fabrizio

For Liberace, an outfit was not complete without footwear specially designed for it. During the 1970s and 1980s, the man charged with this task was LA-based Italian shoemaker Pasquale Di Fabrizio.

Di Fabrizio said that the story behind his work with Liberace began in 1960 when he was working with Dean Martin, singer for the Rat Pack. “Dino asked me to make a pair of house slippers,” he said. “He liked them, so he ordered forty pairs. Then he ordered some for Sinatra. That’s how it started.”62

Di Fabrizio was soon making shoes for Hollywood legends, including Cary Grant, Danny Kaye, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Warren Beatty; he even made Hugh Hefner’s loafers. Among his most famous creations were the bodacious platform boots he created for the rock band KISS. As he did with Anna Nateece, Michael Travis would collaborate with Di Fabrizio to make an outfit come together seamlessly. Travis would sketch the shape and style of the boot he wanted and the cobbler would realize it. “I draw the foot and take measurements,” said Di Fabrizio. “Then, according to the heel they want, I make the mold from wood. I have to make sure the twenty-six bones in each foot go in the right place. Then they can walk— that is the art of making good shoes.”63

The starting price for women’s shoes made by Di Fabrizio was $650 a pair; for men’s, $1,000. Liberace once paid four thousand dollars for a pair of Di Fabrizio’s shoes. He was trumped only by Michael Jackson. Said Di Fabrizio, “We made shoes for Michael Jackson using eighteen-karat gold. They cost $5,000 and were for his museum. He could never wear them—there was so much gold.”64

Although Di Fabrizio passed away in 2008, his company is still going strong under the leadership of his namesake and nephew. The Di Fabrizio workshop has now stitched custom footwear for more than fifty years and one thousand movies. The walls of its Hollywood shop are lined with columns of shoeboxes. Each one is labeled with the name of a star customer and inside is a custom-made wooden sculpture of the star’s feet—bunions and all.

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