The Shoe Report: Milan Design Week

The footwear powering the design industry's biggest event of the year.

Apr 23, 2026

Hi there, housemates.

I’m sitting in the library at The Malin Savannah, fresh off a very long flight from Milan—where, like many of you, I was attending Milan Design Week for the last few days. If your feed looks like mine, it’s probably being pummeled with FOMO-inducing photos of negroni-splashed events, fancy installations, and very beautiful people. I will spare you another recap of those things. Instead, I am here to cover an underreported facet of the week that actually powers the whole damn thing. I am speaking, of course, about footwear.

The king of The Shoe Report. Snapped in line at Alcova. (He did not want to talk to me, so I admired his majesty from a distance.)

At least in my world, a schedule in Milan during this time of year probably looks a little something like this: Appointments start at 9 and can go all day, in more or less 30- to 45-minute increments. Maybe you break for lunch. If you’re smart and the stars align, you might be able to group these visits to a single geographic location—but more often than not, you’re hoofing it across town, through showrooms, palazzos, and parks until the cocktail hour, when you’ll hit up maybe three or so aperitivi before dinner. Then you’re out for drinks until 1 (or later, if you’re more hardcore than me).

Which is to say: The right footwear is essential. It needs to carry you across 20,000+ cobblestoned steps and ideally be relatively safe on a bike, too. And this is a design crowd, okay, so you don’t want to look like a schlub.

I had to resort to my grubby, break-glass-in-case-of-emergency P.F. Flyers due to two 20,000-step days in a row. Photo snapped en route to AD’s Salotto at Marchese.

This week, I polled the crowds across a sweep of chic events and venues—the For Scale x James Black party at Palinurobar, Wrong House’s own aperitivo with TCPR at Giacomo Tabaccheria, Alcova, brand events, and sloshed late nights at Bar Basso—for their rundown of the pairs that made the cut. Here’s how things shook out.

*Interior Design* editor Rebecca Thienes at the FOR SCALE + James Black aperitivo at Palinurobar. Day one, wearing Hereu Plegada flats she selected for their “teeny-tiniest of heels.”

“They go with my turmeric outfit. I like to think I’m a guru. My wife actually told me not to bring them. She said they don’t look elegant enough.” —Ahsen Nadeem

Looks like your shoes are in great shape.

Malloy James: I keep my shoes in good shape. Anybody that knows me will tell you.

What do you do?

I don’t wear them in situations where they’ll get fucked up. You know what I mean? Wipe them down if I need to. Put them in the closet. Let them sit there. Rotate.

How do your feet feel?

Amazing.

How many pairs of shoes did you pack?

Five.

Did you check a bag?

I checked a bag, yeah. I feel like I understand when women pack a lot of shoes. I’m the same. Five to six might be the average. But I’m only here for five days, four nights.

Do you wear insoles, moleskin, anything like that?

No, I don’t. I used to play sports professionally, and when I did, I was big on insoles. Two socks though, I do. I have a habit where I always wear two pairs.