The Accessories Equation

MILAN - Where is Milan's Louboutin?

The question nibbled like a freeloading editor at the various fashion companies' omnipresent food spreads as I wandered in and out of the scores of accessories presentations held last week.

There is, of course, a proud tradition of leather craftsmanship here, and houses that started as shoemakers, like Salvatore Ferragamo and Tod's, are now global branding behemoths with large and crowded ready-to-wear shows. But a celebrity cobbler with a distinctive signature, like Christian Louboutin with his red sole or Manolo Blahnik and his delicately curved stiletto, has not emerged in quite some time.

Perhaps the closest contender is Giuseppe Zanotti, whose spring 2015 presentation in his capacious showrooms on the Via Montenapoleone on Saturday was swarmed with well-wishers. The space had been transformed into a decadent grotto, with headless palm trees, invocations of Jon Bon Jovi and cocktails clinking on the terrace. (It was 2 p.m. and enormous soap bubbles were floating into the air across the way, as at Mardi Gras.)

And everywhere there were shoes, shoes of all sorts. Shoes sitting proudly on shelves, shoes seeming to sprout on boulders, like wild mushrooms. Enormous clogs with gold studs, cork wedges, shell-studded sandals, puffed-up sneakers fit for the Michelin Man. A lovely young woman wearing a black leather play-suit and a nose ring modeled fringed boots.

'Take a walk on the wild side,' a sign urged.

Mr. Zanotti, 57, silver-haired and with black spectacles, said his theme was nature. 'I like rock and roll, but rock and roll destroys the body,' he said. 'You have to take time for purification.'

This message, though, was not exactly congruous with the exuberant maximalism on display, also felt at Casadei on the Corso Venezia, where the kindly Cesare Casadei said he'd been inspired by the 1969 French film 'La Piscine' ('The Swimming Pool'), starring Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin, which translated into gold and silvery mesh, faded denim and more clogs.

In one of the fashion world's perennial and inevitable coincidences oft-cast as trend, Simon Holloway's collection for Hogan also invoked both Ms. Birkin and a swimming pool. Indeed, his runway was mounted over an actual pool at the Parco Don Giussani, suggesting the exciting potential for a scene like the ill-fated Charleston number in 'It's a Wonderful Life,' with models tumbling in - but no such luck.

There were clog-wedges here, strapped with silver; nurse-like white oxfords, and totes shaped like large tortellini, peppered with studs.

The previous day, the classic purse purveyor Furla, had shown bright colors, PVC and hole-peppered backpacks in a seeming bid for the under-40 set.

Viewing these disparate offerings, I thought of the great frenzy over the Fendi Baguette in 1997, and Prada's bowler and doctor's bags a few years later, and wondered if the days of the Great Italian It Bag are over forever (even though the bags themselves are revived and anointed classics in ever-shorter cycles; the Baguette now has its own official web site).

If purification is possible in the realm of leather goods, it might be found in the halls of Valextra, the luxury minimalist leather goods company that showed on the Via Manzoni.

'The discretion of the brand is one of the major draws to people,' said a publicist proudly, displaying a new lightweight tote called the Marina whose lacquered edges, he added, been hand-painted seven times, and a backpack that barely seemed to protrude from the body. There were quiet, discreet cases for passports, for credit cards, for matchbox-sized business cards.

And also on offer was a small cylinder for the plastic bags used to clean up after dogs. It will cost, the publicist said, $200 to $300.

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