The first 2008 event for “Moda Italia”, the travelling stand-alone Italian fashion fair promoted by ICE (Italian Trade Commission) has just finished, with the 25th edition being celebrated in Taiwan and the 32nd in Japan.

Yet there are already changes announced for the next event in July 2008. The objective in the Summer session of the fair will be to strengthen and widen the appeal of ‘Made in Italy’ products. “Moda Italia” has been running since 1992: it aims to promote Italian fashion in Italy and it covers clothes (for men, women and children), fashion accessories, leather goods and shoes. It has played a fundamental role in helping to consolidate the presence of fine and medium-to-high Italian fashion products in South East Asia, and continues to do so. Especially in Japan and Taiwan, prime export destinations for Italian producers of clothes and leather accessories.

Sexy stiletto heels worn by Hollywood icons Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot and contemporary stars Cameron Diaz, Kylie Minogue and Heidi Klum go on display later this month for an exhibition dedicated to the famous shoe in the northern town of Vigevano.

Dozens of pairs of heels will take centre stage for the show at the Bertolini International Shoe Museum, which also includes photographs and design sketches as well as the machinery and raw materials involved in stiletto manufacture.

Sponosored by Milan Fashion Week organiser the Italian National Fashion Chamber (Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana), the show kicks off with the first official image of the stiletto taken in 1953 at the 16th International Shoe Show in Vigevano, where the design was originally launched on the road to success.

Early examples of stilettos by Italian designers Salvatore Ferragamo and Alberto Dal Co' that once graced the feet of femmes fatales Monroe, Bardot, Sophia Loren and Lana Turner are on display together with spiky French footwear by the designers Charles Jourdan and Roger Vivier, who created shoes for Marlene Dietrich.

Luxottica set to buy Oakley

Eyewear giant to pay $2. 1 bln for sports- focused company

Milan, June 21 - Italian eyewear giant Luxottica is set to put another feather in its cap with the acquisition of the American sports and lifestyle accessory maker Oakley, a joint statement from the companies announced on Thursday.

Luxottica, which already owns Ray-Ban and Brooks Brothers, has agreed to pay $29.30 per share, together with the purchase of all outstanding options and other equity rights at the same price per share minus the exercise price.

This represents a premium of 18% over the share's 30-day average trading price and approximately 24% over the three-month average trading price.

The total price tag for the operation will be ome $2.1 billion. In the joint statement, Luxottica Chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio explained that "this is a milestone for our group. Luxottica has long admired the Oakley business and corporate culture and Oakley and Luxottica share a mutual commitment to quality, innovation, and technical skills".

The 'architect of fashion' had designed for Christian Dior

Milan, June 18 - The world of fashion was in mourning on Monday following the death of Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre'.

Known in the trade as the 'architect of fashion', Ferre' rose to fame as the chief designer at the French maison Christian Dior from 1989 to 1996, when he left to dedicate his talents to his own line.

Ferre', who would have turned 63 this August, died from the complications of a massive brain hemorrhage he suffered on Friday.

Ferre' was warmly remembered by his colleagues. Giorgio Armani said he was "a civilized man. I will remember him for his sense of dignity, calm and responsibility".

What do John F Kennedy, Jacques Chirac and Mikhail Gorbachev have in common? Ask the Marinella family, who have been creating neckties for the rich and famous for the last 90 years.

It is at the beginning of the XX century that Eugenio Marinella throws the bases of what would become one of the most fabulous Neapolitan "successful stories ". In 1914, at the eve of the first world war, Eugenio decided, showing an undeniable amount of courage and initiative, to open a shop in Piazza Vittoria, on the elegant Riviera di Chiaia in Naples, at that time, as today, one of the most beautiful waterfronts in Italy.

The position proved to be strategic for a little shop of only 20 square meters, in front of which the Neapolitan high society went walking. After having carried out the works of restructuring and having acquired the two studios, a very large one for the manufacture of shirts, and a smaller one, for the ties, Don Eugenio set out on his first journey to London, to meet his future suppliers…

On show in New York the creativity and innovation capability of the Milanese territory

There is a land where imagination gets down to work, where ideas become reality and turn into objects; a place where thoughts stand close to production, and sales to stories and relations. This is not fiction, it is the fantastic and everyday reality, which nobody sees any longer, just because it is always under our noses.

This place is the “Infinity City”, a continuum of men, women, firms, shops, exhibitions, starting from Milan and Brianza and going on to Varese, Como, Lecco, Bergamo.

Figure-hugging pants, anatomic bikinis and special exercises. Model Fernanda Lessa claims she never stops training to be able to wear miniskirts. This summer's focus of attention for men and women

MILAN - All women dream of an apricot, but many have to settle for an aubergine. In between, there are oranges, which may not be perfect but are still a good result, and the depressing drop-shaped variety. Men don't have these problems. They have the pert bottoms they were born with, assuming their weight is kept within reason, because of the proportion of lean mass, higher than in women, and fat mass, obviously lower than the other sex. At worst, men will have to put up with a pear shape.

Nip and tuck specialists turn to the greengrocer's shelves when they are classifying their patients' buttocks. Personal trainers are less agricultural, merely shaking their heads and piling on the exercises, since the gluteus maximus is one of the body's strongest muscles. Both categories have been working overtime recently. They call it buttock mania and it affects men and women equally. Significantly, a leading gym equipment company has designed a machine specifically to mould marble-hard backsides. More than one designer label, Fiorucci and Gilli included, has launched lift-and-carry jeans to revitalise this sometimes generously proportioned appurtenance. In spring, there were shaping tights but now that the hot weather has arrived, there is him and her underwear, in the form of reducing trunks. A torrent of creams, gels, oils and sprays promises comparable results. Then there is the new beachwear. Tangas are less in evidence, as designers have realised that not everyone has the right figure, and anatomic briefs have made a comeback.

Black Is In, Legs Are Out

MILAN - It’s not deliberate, but the girl can’t help it. Miuccia Prada admits, “I go against the flow”. Everybody else has opted for colour so Prada’s new black is, well, black. Layers of fabric and lavish decoration abound, but Miuccia has gone back to a vaguely - let’s not overdo it - minimal fashion look. It’s a faux-poverty look that you soon realise is anything but poor. Have the others gone for skirts? A passion is a passion - “I’d have liked to do all trousers, but I just couldn’t” - but underskirts are there, with two pieces and, especially, in the dress version. Prada plays games mixing insouciance with simplicity, and glitz with existentialism. The forecasts are that next winter’s big winner will be this new “intellectual femininity for women with attitude, whether they are queens or prostitutes”. And it all comes together in a few, sharply focused items, forged in the Prada soul’s fire to a temper that rivals Balenciaga’s haute couture.

The system patented by Pol, the company that produces the Geox shoes, is so innovative that it has revolutionised the entire shoes industry. Considering that that 80% of shoes produced in the whole world has a rubber sole, Geox's system offers the concrete solution that permits all rubber shoes to 'breathe', through a scientifically tested technology that can be applied to any type of shoe, without altering the waterproof qualities of rubber.