MILAN - With sales in the global luxury sector starting to slow, Italian
shoes and handbags stand out as powerful growth engines as the middle
classes in emerging economies indulge the urge to accessorise.
Companies like Casadei and Furla, which showed off their latest collections at Milan Fashion Week alongside the catwalk shows, are reaping the benefits.
"Our
turnover grew by seven percent last year," family-owned Furla's chief
executive Eraldo Poletto told AFP in an interview in his Milan showroom,
showing off a line of pastel-coloured bags inspired by Japanese flower
prints.
Poletto said the best-performing markets for Furla were
Japan and Asia as a whole and tourist centres in Europe—part of what he
called a "Silk Road" of well-heeled shoppers that connects Dubai and
Moscow, Singapore and New York.
"This is kind of our moment," the
executive said at a crowded presentation where international buyers in
town for fashion week browsed the wallets, clutch bags and satchels --
with fur trimmings, pastel colours or animal prints.
Cesare
Casadei, chairman of his family-owned shoe label, said the company was
planning to open two mono-brand stores in Beijing and Shanghai and
looking to expand in the Middle East after opening stores in Dubai and
Riyadh.
"These are markets in major upheaval, major expansion,"
he said, showing off a collection that ranged from sandals with ornate
patterns and gold trimmings to the company's signature "Blade" pumps
with impossibly high heels.
"Eighty percent of our production is
exported and we want to widen our global distribution," said Casadei,
who grew up next to the shoe factory set up by his parents in 1958 near
the seaside town of Rimini in northeast Italy.
A recent study by
the consultancy Bain & Company found accessories were the
fastest-growing part of the luxury goods market, with an estimated
increase in 2013 of four percent from 2012 compared to a rate of two
percent overall.
Leather and accessories were the "resilient champions," the report said.
It
also found that Italian luxury brands have gained the largest market
share of luxury sales, moving from 21 percent in 1995 to 24 percent now,
nearly equalling French brands' share of 25 percent.
'Wardrobe as art exhibition'
Jane
Reeve, the new chief executive of Italy's fashion chamber, said Italian
shoes were all about the "precision and excellence" of small artisans.
"I've
always had a fetish for shoes!" the Milan-based Reeve laughed, saying
that growing up in Britain she had dreamt of one day importing Italian
shoes.
Alberto Moretti, a young luxury shoemaker whose designs
are worn by stars from Elton John to Lady Gaga to Cameron Diaz, said the
distinguishing characteristic of Italian craftsmen was the creativity
of individual masters.
The craftsman "becomes a designer too",
said Moretti, whose only mono-brand store is in Saint-Tropez in France
but who is also reaching out to Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea and
planning to open in Milan or Paris by the end of 2014.
Asked the eternal question of how many pairs of shoes a woman should have in her closet, Casadei said: "Limitless."
"I
like to imagine the wardrobe as an art exhibition. You cannot say it is
complete with these paintings, there is always another one to add that
completes the collection that little bit more," he said.
"It is
an accessory that no woman will ever forget. Every woman can remember
the first time she wore heels—she has photographed the moment for life."
— AFP
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