from 13 September to 30 December 2017

A journey into the history of the footwear industry with the International Footwear Exhibition – The Micam

It is said that an economic crisis tends to generate ingenuity. This was true in the case of the Footwear Exhibition of Vigevano, which was born in the early 1930s as a reaction to the effects of the 1929 depression, and became today’s theMicam. This story is well documented in the exhibition organised by the “Officina” association in collaboration with the Municipality of Vigevano, the Footwear Museum, Assocalzaturifici, theMicam, Assomac, the Lombardy Regional Authority, the Arsutoria magazine and various local organisations and foundations.

The exhibition at the Sforzesco Castel of Vigevano aims at tracing the history of the footwear industry through documents, photographs, posters and multimedia works: a journey which brings together economy, fashion, costumes, social transformations, evolution of graphics and new technologies.

The exhibition also retraced the history of the footwear industry through extensive original and unpublished documents stored throughout Italy in public and private archives. Starting from the district of Vigevano, it also involved other Italian regions that today make up the largest footwear districts in Italy. This new work on the history of the sectors covers a period of time up to the present day, which links to the work of other districts and expands on an international level.

The project aims at presenting a picture of the current situation and at proposing possible guidelines for the future by collecting examples of winning strategies and the paths that can be taken by following the evolution of the “district formula” within an economic geographic that has changed drastically.

The exhibition is the first in a series of events that will continue in the next few years, “monographs” dedicated to the various aspects of the footwear industry, starting with fashion.

Arsutoria, a partner of the project, will be present at the exhibition with a corner dedicated to its historical archives consisting of digital copies of its large magazine collection dating back to 1947.

A not-to-missed journey through the history of footwear can also be viewed online on any mobile device.

For more information visit: arsutoriamagazine.com/it/arsutoria-archivio-storico/