Dovykabuchilsya!
A year ago, Shari Fontani, a young and energetic creator of exclusive shoes, appeared on the Italian fashion scene. Having barely defended her graduation project, she immediately became the winner of the prestigious competition for young designers, and soon - a participant in Milan Fashion Week. Shari earned such a rapid success and the title of a young talent thanks to her simple heels. Although no, they still cannot be called simple, because the designer offered a collection of interchangeable heels of various designs for any mood.
The idea to create interchangeable heels with an original design came to Shari Fontani a year and a half ago, while working on a graduation project at the Department of Culture and Fashion Design at the University of Florence. “When I showed the sketches to my professor, he said: 'Shari, this is a great idea, but you can never realize it!' I looked at him and replied: "I will do it before the defense of the graduation project." I was so inspired that in a few days I came up with a system for attaching a heel, and in just one day I collected documents and registered my invention, as well as the very idea of interchangeable hairpins, ”recalls the designer. The fastening system became the most difficult part of the work, since it was necessary to ensure its strength and stability. As a result, it turned out to string the heel onto the stiletto and fasten it to the base of the shoe using a screw thread and a lock, which relies on an elegant key. The key is made of gilded chrome, hung on a chain and enclosed in a box with heels. It looks like a real jewelry that can even be worn around the neck - which Shari does, thereby proving her sincere love for her idea.
The first models of heels, created as part of the graduation project, were romantic and cute - they embodied the idea of seven colors. However, in the work on the next collection, Shari Fontani allowed herself to express more daring feelings and associations. As a result, the designer got a peculiar interpretation of the seven deadly sins expressed with gilded and silver plated chrome inlaid in the form of Swarovski crystals. Each heel symbolizes one sin in its Catholic interpretation: pride is depicted with the help of small mirrors inserted into the heel, laziness is in the form of drop-shaped figures with crystals. The heel, depicting lust, is decorated with golden silhouettes of women, and envy - with the image of yellow flowers. Greed, which in the Catholic faith is more likely to be understood as a desire to gain even more power over people, is expressed by the designer in the form of a tower of blue rhombuses, rectangles and balls. According to Shari Fontani, the same color was the ring of Lady Diana, who died due to someone's greed. The most expressive heels seem to depict anger in the form of a naked dagger and gluttony in the form of three bright balls of ice cream in a horn. Each pair of heels comes in a round velvet box of black color, and for safety when carrying it is tied with satin ribbons. Such attention to detail is characteristic of everything that Shari Fontani does, and from this her exclusive things seem even more valuable.
However, heels are not all that make up the Shari Fontani collection. Each pair of hairpins requires a worthy companion in the form of shoes, so there are several models of high-rise shoes with a silk or suede finish in black, blue-gray, red and gold to choose from. Each pair is put on a sturdy hairpin of the corresponding color, and on the insole of each shoe is the designer’s trademark: a parrot stylized with the letters S and F. All shoes and heels are made in the personal workshop of the designer, opened 7 months ago after the first success of unusual Shari Fontani brand accessories. The production of one pair takes from 50 to 90 working days, and many models are made by special order of customers. Shari already has enough of them to make sure of the prospects of the enterprise and the success of the idea itself. With the promotion of Shari Fontani, organization of support for young stylists Cool Hunter Italy and organizers of various design contests helps. However, looking at this energetic Italian, it is difficult to say that she needs any help: charisma and unshakable confidence in her own success seem to open any doors for Shari Fontani.
At the end of May of this year, Shari Fontani, with the support of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, arrived in Moscow to meet representatives of luxury stores and show them the latest collection of her amazing heels. About which companies she hopes to cooperate with, Shari mysteriously remained silent, but there is no doubt: soon a clatter of a pair or two of Shari Fontani heels will sound over Moscow bridges - their luxurious style is very close to Russian customers, and the very idea of interchangeable stilettos cannot not to please the demanding and wealthy fashionistas. At least in Europe, Shari Fontani interchangeable heels have already earned the approval of not only the organizers of Milan Fashion Week, but also the end customers: in Italy, the Shari Fontani collection is sold in selected stores in Rome, Florence and Milan. Being a true exclusive, all pairs of heels are sold in a single copy for each city. Thus, Shari protects the desire of the owners of heels to be truly one and only in their own territory. However, you have to pay for everything, and Shari Fontani heels are no exception: the purchase price for a pair of shoes is about 300 euros, and for a pair of heels it’s 475 euros, and products from Shari Fontani’s work come with price tags from 2 500 to 3 600 euros . Such is the price of handmade, unique idea and originality of style.
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The international shoe design competition Shoes Style, held in Moscow this year, showcased many interesting footwear and accessory collections. Shoes Report recently published a story about the winners—third-year students from Kosygin Russian State University, Margarita Skvaznikova and Egor Lysov, who presented their "Retrospective" shoe collection at Shoes Style.
ICEBUG at Euro Shoes: Swedish Innovation in Grip Technology
ICEBUG is a Swedish company steeped in innovation and creativity. Our rapid growth is a result of our expertise in grip and technology. Since its inception, ICEBUG has been creating footwear with superior grip and is always striving to improve grip even further.
KV+ will present versatile sneakers for both sports and urban wear at Euro Shoes.
The Swiss brand KV+ is not so well known to the general Russian audience, but it is well known in the world of skiing, because it was there that KV+ took its first steps and actively developed. The Swiss brand has earned the trust of the professional sports audience over the past 35 years. At the same time, the Russian sports market of ski equipment has always been a priority for the Swiss.
Rieker and Remonte are regular exhibitors at Euro Shoes: meet your favorite brands at the exhibition from August 25 to 28 at the Central Trade Fair Center.
Riker and Remonte will present their Spring/Summer 2027 collections at the Euro Shoes exhibition (August 25–28, WTC Congress Centre).
New brands at Euro Shoes in August!
At the end of the month, from August 25th to 28th, the international footwear and accessories exhibition Euro Shoes Premiere Collection will take place in Moscow at the WTC Congress Center on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. We'd like to introduce you to the new exhibitors at Euro Shoes, who will be presenting their collections of footwear, accessories, shoe care products, and leather goods.
From July 27 to 29, the Euro Shoes@CAF_Eliteline 2026 exhibition will be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Elite Line is an international specialized exhibition of footwear, fur, leather, and accessories. The exhibition will feature collections from international and domestic manufacturers from Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, and other countries.
How to learn to effectively manage store customer traffic?
Customer traffic in shopping malls and street retail is declining; people are shopping less offline for a number of objective reasons, one of which is the convenience of online shopping with all its advantages. And yet, offline shopping continues to thrive. How can we control store traffic, learn to correctly calculate and influence the number of people visiting stores to ensure profitability?
"When Customers Are Few: How Fashion Store Owners Can Squeeze the Most Out of Every Customer"
In recent years, offline retail in clothing, footwear, and accessories has been operating under conditions of a steady decline in incoming traffic. By the end of 2025, offline store traffic in Russia had declined by 8-15%, with the offline segment's purchase rate declining more sharply than the overall market, according to Retail.ru. According to statistics from individual shopping centers, the decline by the end of last year was between 15 and 25%. How can salespeople effectively engage with customers in such challenging conditions? We'll explore service strategies in low traffic conditions with SR expert Elena Vinogradova, who specializes in purchasing and sales in the fashion business. The expert shares proven methods with practical examples of speech modules. Elena is confident that, in a context of declining traffic, high-quality service is becoming the main competitive advantage for the shoe industry.
How the Masters Forge. Interviews with the Winners of the International Shoe Design Competition, Shoes Style
In May 2026, the finalists of the international footwear design competition, Shoes Style, were awarded again in Moscow. The annual competition is held by A.N. Kosygin Russian State University, a university that trains shoe designers and technologists, and attracts students from design universities in Russia and the CIS.
How to sell more without losing customer trust?
Today, discounts and sales are no longer considered an effective tool for achieving sales targets. Furthermore, online and offline stores offer consumers virtually the same price for shoes, and consumers often choose not the cheapest option, but the easiest and fastest one. This is why service and soft sales are becoming a key competitive advantage for shoe stores, says Maria Gerasimenko, an expert at SR in fashion business management and development.
Euro Shoes: the industry's leading footwear exhibition will be held August 25–28 at the WTC Congress Center.
At the end of August, Moscow will once again become a magnet for the footwear industry: the WTC Congress Center on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment will host the international exhibition Euro Shoes Premiere Collection—a specialized B2B event for footwear industry and fashion retail professionals, the key industry event of the new purchasing season and the development of fashion retail assortments. Over 100 companies and brands will participate in the exhibition, presenting their spring/summer 2027 collections of shoes, bags, and accessories to professional visitors. A working meeting of the National Footwear Union of Russia (NOBS) will be held as part of Euro Shoes, featuring footwear companies, professional associations, marketplaces, and independent experts.
The share of marketplaces will grow
The footwear category on Ozon Fashion shows steady growth The share of online sales in fashion is growing, and last year it was already more than 54%. Buyers are increasingly buying clothes and shoes online, and the lion's share of these purchases are made on marketplaces. Ozon is one of the leading players in the Russian fashion market, and the Fashion direction on the platform is the fastest growing. About trends in online trading, about the specifics of the shoe market and recommendations for brands planning to sell shoes through the marketplace - in an exclusive interview with SR with the Commercial Director of the Footwear direction at Ozon Fashion Olga Moskvicheva.
What factors influence pricing, and how to work with retail prices for shoes
Footwear retail is one of those segments that is highly dependent on seasonality. Pricing in the footwear business, in turn, depends on a multitude of factors, from production costs to the vagaries of weather and regional factors.SR's expert in product assortment and management, Emina Ponyatova, discusses the key principles of pricing footwear products, as well as the main pressure factors and challenges facing footwear retailers in 2025, and offers recommendations on how to ensure successful and profitable retail.
New Tamaris Spring-Summer 26 Collection: Comfort and Elegance in Every Model
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Creating an emotional connection through a showcase
Emotional response from customers is the key to successful retail sales. Shop windows are capable of not only attracting attention, but also evoking emotions: from joy and nostalgia to a sense of belonging and the desire to possess. Using psychological triggers in shop window design helps turn a passerby into a buyer. SR expert in visual merchandising and retail design Viktor Malygin talks about approaches to the concept of shop window design and current themes and plots for presenting goods in shop windows.
MARCO TOZZI presented his Fall-Winter 2025/26 collection in Moscow.
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Euro Shoes starts on August 27th!
The leading international exhibition of footwear and accessories in Moscow, Euro Shoes premiere collection, starts next week!
Euro Shoes: The Fall Premiere That Set Trends and Raised Acute Questions for the Industry
From August 27 to 30, Moscow once again became the shoe capital: the international exhibition Euro Shoes premiere collection was held in the congress center of the Central Trade Fair on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. For four days, the exhibition brought together leading global brands, buyers and industry experts, becoming a place where fashion trends are created and business alliances are formed.
Three fashionable colors for accessories and shoes for the fall-winter 2025/26 season
Each season, trend bureau Future Snoops (formerly Fashion Snoops) identifies key colors for different product groups. For shoes, bags, and accessories, the forecast takes into account the specifics of the categories and is based on general cross-market color forecasts for the season. The three colors described in the article below will influence the accessories market in the fall/winter 25/26 season, helping you promote trendy new items and update classic styles. These shades have beautiful and delicious names: "Ice Star," "Honey Glaze," and "Cherry Jam."
Euro Shoes — March 4-7, 2026 at the WTC Congress Center
From March 4th to 7th, leading brands from Europe, Asia, and the CIS will gather at the WTC Congress Center in Moscow to present their Fall/Winter 2026 collections, capture current trends, and set the direction for the fashion industry.
Customer profiling in a shoe store. What is this technique and how can it be used in sales?
Profiling is a scientific method of "reading people," allowing one to create a psychological profile of a person and predict their actions or behavior in certain situations, or even catch them in a lie. Profiling is used in sales because the salesperson needs to understand a person's emotional state and their underlying motivations for purchasing. An expert and practitioner in sales growth in fashion, SR, discusses this method and its practical application in footwear retail.
Shoe educational program: what shoe soles are made of
“What is the difference between TEP and EVA? What does tunit promise me? Is PVC glue? What is the sole of these shoes made of? ”- the modern buyer wants to know everything. In order not to smash his face in front of him and be able to explain whether such a sole suits him in soles, carefully read this article. In it, process engineer Igor Okorokov tells what materials the soles of shoes are made of and what makes each of them so good.
How to set prices that will earn
Some businessmen still confuse the concept of margin with the concept of trade margins and set prices for their goods, guided solely by the example of competitors. No wonder they go broke! Analyst at the Academy of Retail Technologies Maxim Gorshkov gives several tips and formulas with which you can set not only ruinous, but also profitable prices.
Sales of shoes and accessories: effective techniques for business rhetoric
Which speech modules are effective in communicating with potential and current customers of shoe stores, and which are not, Anna Bocharova, a business consultant, knows.
We form the salary of sellers: expert advice
“How do you charge your consultants for personal or general sales?” Is one of the most popular questions causing a lot of controversy and gossip on the online forums of retail business owners. Indeed, how to properly form the earnings of sellers? But what about bonuses, where to get a sales plan from, do employees allow them to buy goods at discounted stores? In search of truth, the Shoes Report turned to a dozen shoe retailers, but no company wanted to disclose its motivation system - the process of its development was too complicated and individual. Then we asked four business consultants, and finally became convinced that the topic of seller motivation is very complex, because even our experts could not come to a common opinion.
The whole truth about Bayer. Who is he and how to become one?
Bayer is no longer a new, but still a popular and sought-after profession. It’s fashionable to be a buyer. Buyers are at the origins of the emergence and development of trends. If the designer offers his vision of fashion in the season, then the buyer selects the most interesting commercial ideas. It is on buyers that the policy of sales of stores and what, in the end, the buyer will wear depends on. This profession is surrounded by a magical fleur, often associated with a lack of understanding of what exactly is the work of a buyer.
Technology Selling Issues
There is nothing worse than meeting the buyer with the words “Hello, can I help you with something?”, Because the seller works in the store just to help. Criticizing this well-established pattern of communication with the buyer, Andrei Chirkarev, business coach for effective sales and the founder of the New Economy project, shares the technology of truly selling issues with readers of Shoes Report.
Fur, and not only: types of lining
In the production of winter footwear, various materials are used that are designed to retain heat and meet the requirements of consumers: natural sheepleather, artificial fur, artificial fur from natural wool and others. All types of lining fur have their own advantages and disadvantages. Let's consider the properties of each of them.
The best models of Czech shoes of the past
In Soviet times, for shoes from Czechoslovakia sold under the Cebo brand, customers stood in line for four hours and did not regret it, because Czech shoes were considered to be of high quality, comfortable and fashionable. Shoe designer Juraj Shushka shared a photo archive of his collection with Shoes Report magazine, which contains the most interesting Cebo models from the 1940's to the 1980's.
Retail Arithmetic
Before you begin to solve specific problems, you need to find out how accurately all the leaders of your company understand the basic terminology of retail.
How to fire a worker without tears, scandal and trial
Sooner or later, any manager is faced with the need to part with an employee. Correctly and on time the dismissal procedure will save the company money, and the boss himself - nerves and time. But why sometimes, knowing that a break in relations is inevitable, we postpone the decision for months?
