Giuseppe Zanotti Shoes & Handbags Company History.

Though his name is probably misspelled more often than not, any well-heeled woman knows you don't spell Giuseppe Zanotti – you wear him. With intricately detailed and irresistibly sexy shoes, (who hasn't coveted his signature strappy stilettos?) the Giuseppe Zanotti name has become synonymous with fashion-forward femininity.

“Sex appeal is an integral part of a woman. With my shoes, I try to give a woman an instrument for seduction," the 46-year-old designer has said.

Born in San Mauro Pascoli, an Adriatic coastal town rooted in shoemaking, Giuseppe Zanotti began his career as a shoe stylist in the early 1980s before creating his own eponymous label in 1994. Since then, Zanotti has become one of Italy 's foremost contemporary and prolific shoe designers. Mixing ultra modern taste with time honored techniques, the collections consistently represent a seamless merger between style and substance. “The way a shoe is crafted is essential for its success. Without the skills of the shoemaker the collection can never take form,” Zanotti asserts. “Design awareness keeps you up to speed….it's important for building up a repertory of ideas and images taken from music videos, from art, the cinema, from design; in short, from everything which reflects changing fashions.”

Each of the Zanotti collections (Vicini, Giuseppe Zanotti Design and Vicini Fashion Sport) are produced at the three Vicini factories in San Mauro Pascoli, averaging somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 styles annually. “His collections are very extensive so he has a team of people who work with him very closely in the design process,” says Zanotti public relations director, Alessandra Peruzzo. In lesser hands, such volume might compromise design, but with Zanotti, there are no shortcuts. “There's an enormous amount of work on every detail, from the shape of the heel to finding the perfect accessory that can be put on the shoe. Nothing is ever overlooked,” says Peruzzo.