The high-end footwear showcase par excellence, Micam, ends its 85th edition with 44,227 visitors, 60% of whom came from abroad. A clear signal confirming the success of the February 2018 edition, which recorded a strong rise in the number of Russian visitors, up +22%, making it the top foreign country once again at the fair. The Ukraine followed at +7% and, within the EU, the number of German visitors rose by +9%, while France remained steady with a growth rate of +1%. Negative results instead arrived from the Orient, with a drop in the number visitors from China and Hong Kong, due to the dates coinciding with the Chinese New Year, and from the UK, which has begun to feel the effects of Brexit. The number of Spanish visitors also experienced a downtrend, while the domestic market continues to experience great difficulty.
Protagonists of the event were the 1,364 collections that featured all the segments of footwear, from fashion to comfort and luxury, for men, women, and children: an offering that represents the very best of Made in Italy and international proposals. The project of requalification regarding the exhibition’s layout, which was first kicked off a few seasons ago, has continued with the creation of two new spaces in Hall 4: the new FUN square with its virtual reality environments and “make-up and hair styling” workstations set up in conjunction with Adorn, and above all the new Emerging Designer area dedicated to the collections of twelve talented designers capable of offering a commercial alternative to cutting-edge retailers.
Moreover, the new i-KIDS square has “migrated” to the hall’s entrance, allowing the segment of children’s footwear with its most prestigious brands to be positioned in a central place of importance.
Glamour and the fight against counterfeiting were the leading protagonists of the Fashion Square: from one end, designer labels and the reflection of the iconic image of Vanity, the title-theme characterising this past edition. From the other end, the area created in collaboration with the Museum of Real and Fake, condemning the illegal practice of counterfeiting, which was also underlined by the performance of actress Tiziana Di Masi. The Fashion square was then the centre of the show’s events, including the inaugural ceremony with Hon. Ivan Scalfarotto, undersecretary to the Ministry of Economic Development, the MICAM gala event “Vanity in the Spotlight”, with the DJ set of Giorgio Moroder, and the MICAM Award ceremony, which saw awards granted to the American company Hanig’s Footwear and the Italian companies Calzature Barbieri, Calzature Diana, Fratelli Nobili, Calzaturificio Menini, and Ravizza Sport.
The MAN square was reconfirmed with its shoeshine stations and the STYLE square with The Onigiri Art of Yujia Hu, the chef and artist who prepares shoe-shaped sushi. There was also, of course, the MICAM Square, with its daily fashion shows and seminars dedicated to fashion trends and retail, which were staged by the experts of WGSN.
Thus, MICAM was business, image and glam, and information and fun, reinforcing the event’s role as a platform for high-end fashion footwear.
