Fashion: I would go to the ball, if only I could afford the shoes

What you need is a Prince Charming, says Tony Glenville

AS DUSK settled over the Ponte Vecchio in Florence on Friday night, the limousines pulled up at the doors of Palazzo Corsini. The rustle of taffeta and the nervous twisting of bow ties announced the Cinderella ball, the high spot of a weekend to launch Everafter: A Cinderella Story, the movie starring Drew Barrymore and due to be released here in October.

It is not often that Florence steals the limelight from New York, Paris, Milan or London, but for one weekend it became the centre of the fashion universe. The fashion pack flew in, eager not only to attend the film's premiere and the ball - Drew Barrymore wore a Ferragamo dress made out of silk "rags" for the premiere and then a sparkling gown for the ball - but also to take a look at the second fashion biennale which includes installations by Antonio Berardi, Alexander McQueen and Comme des Garcons. The theme, appropriately, is film and fashion. The first biennale held in Florence two years ago, was about art and fashion.

Valentino paid tribute to Visconti's film The Leopard with a room full of ballgowns. Tom Ford, the designer-in-chief at Gucci, was inspired by the movie The Tenth Victim with sunglasses and guns. It was the ball however, that was the highlight of the weekend. At Palazzo Corsini, Anjelica Houston drifted by in grey tulle by Valentino. Bjork wore a white leather and gold lame number by the American designer in Paris, Jeremy Scott. And Megan Dodds wore Ungaro.

But what of the glass slipper? By midnight, the ice sculptures of Cinderella's slippers had melted into the darkness. In the film, the slipper is given centre stage. Ferragamo has scored the product placement coup of the decade. Not only does it fit Cinderella's dainty foot, you see the slipper being manufactured on the silver screen. It was commissioned over a year ago, and is based on an antique shoe at the Ferragamo shoe museum. A tiny mule with a crystal heel, it really is a Cinderella slipper. And just as Cinders got to go to the ball, so you too can own your own Cinderella slipper.

The kind people at Ferragamo have put a replica of the shoe into production. It has been named the Princess, presumably because that is what you will turn into when you put it on. It is made of silver satin, woven with silver thread and with a clear perspex heel.

The Princess will set you back a mere pounds 1,350. However, a similar style, without the embroidery, is available from a more modest pounds 145.

Ferragamo, 24 Old Bond Street, London W1. 'Ever After: A Cinderella Story' is released in the UK on 9 October.