The Boston Globe: July 31, 2008


'At Vegas Expo, It's Shoetime'


LAS VEGAS- This city is a haven of glamour, glitter, and greed. Could there be amore natural location for one of the most elaborate shoe events in the world?


The World Shoe Association expo, billed as a "globalfootwear and accessories marketplace," took over the Vegas strip thisweek, drawing 35,000 guests and hosting retail players from more than 90countries. Most flocked here to take in the Spring 2009 shoe collections.Fetishists met their match.


WSA is a surreal world where phrases like, "Your foot-bedsare amazing!" and "We're combining trends, from the bootie to thegladiator to the bondage," and "like Ugg boots, but sexier" are utteredwithout irony. Where black, gold, and silver are tarted up as "black iris,""marigold," and "silver rose." Where the neologism "flexy"a conflation of flexible and sexy doesn't raise an eyebrow.


Showgoers - a stylish melange of buyers, vendors, designers,and brand founders - appeared to run on a steady fuel of caffeine, booze, andsugar. Fishbowls outside of every gleaming display booth - practically mini-boutiques within the enormous Las Vegas Convention Center - tempted with pilesof wrapped chocolates or sticky confections.


Shoe companies constructed elaborate pavilions in which tohawk their wares. Me Too boasted a two-story wooden structure, while a lushwhite expanse of Panton chairs and Saarinen Tulip tables marked the ItalianShoemakers' base. Skechers ensconced buyers in a striking white capsule withgleaming blue panels and bamboo.


"The Box," an uber-chic compound, complete with adreadlocked DJ and plastic goblets of red wine, hosted sleek collections fromVelvet Angels (think knee-high filigree laser-cut leather boots) and KathrynAmberleigh.


At the Venetian Hotel, more than 350 designer and luxuryexhibitors at the Collections at WSA (think higher-end, aspirational brands)set up shop within the hotel's bedroom suites. There were United Nude colorfulwedges splayed out on 600-thread-count sheets, strappy Isaac Mizrahi Couturenumbers perched on an armoire, La Fenice stilettos balanced on mini-bar boxesof exorbitantly priced jelly beans.


Forget "Le Reve" down the street. This shoe-heavendream was for real.