I absolutely agree! I spent two glorious days exploring the multi-faceted world of high- quality footwear on the glittering stands in the MICAM halls. Getting back to reality, I visited the Sustainability and The Future of Retail demonstration areas at the MICAM X area, MICAM Milano’s Innovation Hub, to learn about the new fashion trends and the latest materials, as well as the fascinating Future of Retailing, explained by the gurus and experts in the field.
What caught my eye
As for shoe colours, materials and shapes for ladies’ footwear in 2024, I particularly liked The Celestial Snow Fashion Trend, with its icy blues and glossy silver ankle boots, glittering metallic finishes and sparkling heels, which, according to MICAM, enhances the pure notion of Winter mornings and sensitivity of the trend! Another trend that caught my eye was Refined Heritage; this AW24 concept is the portal to a bygone era, steeped in nostalgia and the timeless allure of countryside living, which I found rather beautiful. Shoe shapes go from glitzy, pointy flats to elegant high heeled strappy sandals and slouchy heeled boots in soft leathers, not to mention classic slingbacks, jewelled and toned in golden hues… I could go on… The aisles were mostly busy in the halls most days during the show, and on the stands the agents were clearly taking orders. Similarly, the ladies’ and men’s shoe brands in the German Pavilion were busy serving customers on the stands, particularly the Wortmann brands, including Tamaris, Marco Tozzi and S.Oliver – all of whom were showing some amazing footwear,
including some fabulous ankle boots! I also visited the Sioux stand, a leading German shoe brand that has been around for many years, but remains largely undiscovered by many UK retailers, who might do well to explore its offerings.
As always, the Spanish footwear section was lively with visitors most days, and the agents were taking orders on their stands, particularly in the afternoons! Elsewhere, I was impressed by the soft, buttery leather boots and bags in the Brazilian footwear area, and I thought the trade prices were very reasonable, given the high quality of the leathers. There were so many brands to see throughout the show. I stopped by Waldläufer, one of my favourite German footwear brands that is doing well in the UK right now. I had a chat with UK Footwear Agent, Matt Nuttall, who attends MICAM every season.
Matt told me: “It’s been a relatively quiet show for us with fewer of our customers travelling from the UK and Ireland. With that
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said, the customers we are seeing are important to us and the show remains an integral part of our sales season. We will be back again next show as ever. Hopefully, consumer confidence and therefore retailer confidence will return, and we will see a return to a busy show with more buyers from our markets making the effort to travel.”
What the brands said Meanwhile, John Feeney, Footwear Agent for the Hogl brand in the UK, who exhibited at MICAM this season, commented: “It felt a little different this season than last. The Hogl stand was busy and lots of business was done, however, when we went for a walk around the halls, it did feel a little quieter than last season.” John continued: “It is difficult to say if this was a fair reflection overall, as it was on the Tuesday, so always a quieter day. Speaking to people there though, it seemed that generally it did feel slower so it will be interesting to see if it returns stronger in the Summer. We
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