Milan footwear: Aquazzura and Giuseppe Zanotti

Two footwear brands demanding attention in Milan are Aquazzura and Giuseppe Zanotti – style leaders who both presented their latest collections in beautiful Renaissance palazzos. Only in Italy folks, only in Italy.

One Italian brand in full flourish is Aquazzura, a footwear marque that showed a great new Mexican-inspired collection inside a fantastic Renaissance palace in Milan.

“Every time I need inspiration, I have to go swimming. I throw myself in the water and then I begin to get ideas,” explained Aquazzura creative director Edgardo Osorio, after fondly recalling vacationing on the coast of the Yucatan.

Picking up ideas on the coast in local markets, seen in embroideries and raffia, that permeated a very cool collection.

“I actually started to learn to surf during Covid,” Osorio revealed, standing beside perhaps his best look – a Wedge Wave. With a shape aping spray and a sole composed of metallic leather to look like water. Keeping the nautical theme, there was also a clever pair of printed water snake sandals.

Edgardo also copied Mexican embroidered linen, a rich tradition there, though made in soft pink and beige canvas. Though, as before every shoe from Aquazzura, is made in Italy, in Tuscan factories.

For evening, Edgardo showed shaggy high-heels, which looked made of an explosion of feathers, but were actually paper. And some sensational laser-cut crystal heels that screamed glamour.

In the past two years, the brand has increasingly emphasized its table-top and home décor division Aquazzura Casa. It already has a substantial retail space in Harrods.

“I design to make people feel good about life, to bring happiness and joy. I have dedicated myself to that. That’s how I like to work,” the designer smiles.

Edgardo’s next move is to open the first Aquazzura bar in Hotel de Russie in Rome next year – concentrating on tequila and mezcal.

“I make so many cocktails they now call my home in Florence, Palazzo Tequila,” chuckles the Colombia-born but Italy-based Osorio, who founded the brand 13 years ago with partner Ricardo D’Almeida. This year, Aquazzura – which sells in over 300 retailers in 58 countries – expects to touch €70 million in annual revenues.

Might they be open to new outside investments? “Yes, to the right one. We need to expand our retail footprint, especially in America and open in Los Angeles or Miami. We have a lot of room for growth.”

Even without outside financing, by year’s end they will have opened 10 new stores, on a franchise basis with local partners. Last week, Aquazzura opened a boutique in New Delhi. This spring, they unveiled a new boutique in St Tropez, “where in June and July we had the best two months we ever had in any Aquazzura stores ever.”

“Unbelievable,” marvels Edgardo, who still seems boyishly surprised by all the success.

Giuseppe Zanotti celebrated the 30th year of his brand in the best possible way – with his latest ebullient presentation. Few designers anywhere have as much joie de vivre as Zanotti, an excellent shoe creator yet always a man of his roots in Romagna, the earthy region below Venice.

Presented inside his beautiful showroom in 18th marble palazzo on shopping mecca Via Montenapoleone, the collection carries key elements in his DNA: metal sculptures and jewels that are not only as decorative accessories but as essential, compositional elements.

His footwear is sophisticated, yet always gutsy, like the standout of this collection. A revival of his signature Ring sandal. This season created with knuckle dusters of crystals, eye catching, yet very happily practical, and updated with a classic flat or a new block heel.

Though decorative, the mood is clean – like in the block heel in the Mya mule and Brendha slingback.

Ever generous, Zanotti hosted a gang of Milanese and Romagnolo pals in his back dining room with chunks of parmigiano reggiano and his own local spicy pork salami, washed down by magnums of prosecco, or bottles of pommard.

Considering his 30 decades, Giuseppe held forth: “We reach this anniversary amid huge historic changes in society, reflected also in fashion consumption habits. Shoppers have become weary with the increasingly frequent seasonality of products, to the point that a change in pace has become necessary. If I made any mistake, it was to be too seasonal, to chase the latest trend. Now, we want to streamline and curate our offering so it goes beyond the concept of season.”

Today, Zanotti’s footwear is sold in 60 countries worldwide. It’s a regular presence on the most exclusive red carpets and a collaborator with such clever creators as Christian Cowan and Jennifer Lopez, Rita Ora and Mary J. Blige.

“I am the first to admit there have been highs and lows in our business. But the fact I am still here today is because I do all this with great passion,” concludes Giuseppe, his eyes twinkling though his signature thick rimmed black glasses.