The Newest Shoebizness Contributor, Valeria Carrano!

We’re so excited to have Valeria Carrano on the Shoebizness.com team! She’s a wonderful Stylist and has a special interest in all things Italian, including footwear! Valeria will be contributing her thoughts one the Italian footwear industry and I’m trilled to be introducing her first article. Welcome to the team!

-Mary

I’m thrilled about my new relationship with Shoebizness and my new blog topic, The Italian Luxury Shoe Market. I will be writing about anything and everything related to Italian shoes, as I’m Italian myself and it’s a very exciting topic for me, and hopefully for you all as well. Over the past few days, I’ve been brainstorming on what my first article should be about, as the first article will set the tone for the rest. As I was brainstorming, I was (surprise!) shoe shopping with my cousin in Westport, CT. We were shopping and gabbing, trying on shoes and modeling them in front of the mirror. That’s when I saw them. They were the most beautiful boots I had ever seen. They were sleek. They were sexy. They were black suede, over-the-knee stiletto boots with a gold hardware zipper creeping up the back. They were designed by Italian shoe-sation Adrienne Vittadini.

Me in my Beautiful Adrienne Vittadini, Inez boots

I grabbed a pair for each of us and we tried them on. We walked around the area to make sure they were the right fit and style. All of a sudden, women from all over the store started crowding us.

“Where did you get those shoes!?”

No sooner had we gotten the words out, a stampede of women went flying over to the shelf where the boxes were stacked. No one would believe the scene that erupted next- tissue paper and boxes flying everywhere, carriages colliding, women clasping the shoes with white knuckles as they ran to a secluded corner to try them on. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were like angry dogs fighting over red meat. This occurrence brought an entire new meaning to these shoes. I suddenly decided that I needed a half size larger than what I had in my hand, but all the shoes were gone! The entire shelf! Yet there it was- one lone boot, lost in the shuffle and without a mate. It was a size 8.  That was the exact size that I was looking for. I took the boot and put it on. It fit like a glove. Now I just needed to find the match.

I heard an aggressive stomping noise behind me, and a woman came bounding up with only one boot on her foot. It was my other boot! When she realized that the other boot was missing (she didn’t notice it was the one I had on my foot), she began shrieking to a poor man sulking in the corner;

“The boot! Where did the boot go!? I left it here! Someone took it! Find me that boot!”

“Take off the boot and slip it into our cart under the other box”, I heard my cousin whisper.

And so the stake out began. It was a competition to see which woman could outwait the other. Now, something all of you readers should know about me is that I LOVE SHOES. I don’t just love them, I’m obsessed with them. I mean, I’m writing for a shoe blog. There was no way I was giving up this boot, even if I had to sleep in that store. So we waited. And waited. And finally, when the opposing player thought that the boot was missing forever, she forfeited.

I scooped up that boot and ran. We continued shopping, and we did cross paths with the other woman again. She was still complaining to her poor husband about her “almost” boot victory. My cousin and I looked at each other and laughed. To me, it wasn’t just about the boot. It was about the feeling I had wearing the boot. The confidence a woman feels when she slips her foot into an Italian made work of art.

This experience is one of the most obvious examples of the attachment that women get to a shoe, and more importantly, a brand. For the designers and producers in the footwear industry, quality and branding is one of the most important tools for marketing, sales and image. In this case, Adrienne Vittadini’s brand portrays what women want to be, who they see themselves to be, and how they want others to perceive them. So for shoe designers, let this be a little reminder of what branding means to the consumer, both physically and emotionally.

Thank you, Adrienne Vittadini.