When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
LA STAMPA

In Europe, Women's Shoe Style Choices Reflect National Identities

French women buy more shoes each year than their other European counterparts. But what KIND of shoes says even more. Italian women are more apt to go for high heels...and others?

(Maegan Tintari)
(Maegan Tintari)

LA STAMPA/Worldcrunch*

From Cinderella to the girls of Sex and The City, women have always been obsessed with shoes. That obsession, it seems, extends all around the word, even if the kind and style of shoes might change. Now, a new survey attempts to quantify and qualify the links between nationality and footwear.

For starters, American women buy more shoes than Europeans, according to data by National Trade Sources and Research specialists, Euromonitor, Mintel, in a survey commissioned by Spartoo.com, a European online retailer of footwear.

Among Europeans, French women buy the largest number of shoes: an average of six pairs of shoes a year. A pair of smart stilettos, maybe by Christian Louboutin, ballerinas, like the favorite of the former first lady Carla Bruni, are de rigueur in a fashionable French closet.

English women buy an average of 5.4 pairs of shoes a year. They wear the brands Pretty Ballerinas and Manolo Blahnik, like the super model Kate Moss does, but also something more rock and punk, often with studs. Dr.Martens boots are always trendy in the UK.

Italian women (who buy an average of 5.2 pairs a year) go crazy for high heels. An Italian fashionista would easily wear 5-inch stilettos even for a simple happy hour. On the other hand, Northern Europeans are more sporty. In Holland and Belgium women buy mainly comfortable sneakers.

Read more in Italian from La Stampa. Original article by Roselina Salemi

Photo - Maegan Tintari

*This is a digest item, not a direct translation

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Crimea Is Expanding Private Army Militias, Modeled On The Wagner Group

Wagner-like military groups are being formed in Crimea. Are they preparing to fight the Ukrainian army? Or to evacuate the local oligarchs?

People walking by a Russian army poster on Ushakova Square in Sevastopol, Crimea

Ushakova Square in Sevastopol, Crimea

Victoria Roshina

The Crimean peninsula is restless. The pro-Russian occupation authorities are increasingly reporting explosions and attacks by the Ukrainian army. Meanwhile, sources inside Kyiv's intelligence services are promising that Ukrainian troops will enter Crimea before the end of the year.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

The head of the occupation administration of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, insists that there is no panic, yet is actively building fortifications and planning for the possibility that the war arrives on the territory. This now includes the creation of private armies, which appear inspired to some degree by the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit now involved in combat in Ukraine.

Aksyonov has gathered two volunteer battalions, Tavrida and Livadia, which are currently located in the neighboring regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Russian propagandists have already dubbed the combat wing, Aksyonovites, closely associated with Russian Cossacks and security structures that participated in the peninsula's annexation in 2014.

The Tavrida battalion operates under the leadership of Anton Sirotkin, a Cossack military leader and member of the Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party.

Another top Tavrida leader, Vyacheslav Tokmakov, explained on Russian television that at the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, Tavrida was in conflict with the regular army of the Russian Federation — and the Russian military realized that "it is better to leave (them) alone."

"We immediately set the conditions: gentlemen, you set us a task and a deadline. As for how, with what forces, let us decide," Tokmakov said about how his private army would work with Russia's regular army.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest