Accessories lead way as market slows down

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 4 percent from 2012 compared to a rate of 2 percent overall.

Leather and accessories were the "resilient champions", the report says.

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 equaling French brands' share of 25 percent.

Jane Reeve, the new chief executive of Italy's fashion chamber, says 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 dreamed 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, says the distinguishing characteristic of Italian craftsmen was the creativity of individual masters.

The craftsman "becomes a designer, too", says 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 says: "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 says.

"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