Rovereto | Adami Sciuss

On assignment up in the Trentino last week, I found this crazy, beautiful shop deep in the old heart of Rovereto. It’s called Adami Sciuss and most appropriately subtitled a different place. Primarily a shoe and clothing store, for both sexes, Adami Sciuss stocks excerpts from a generous handful of smaller, offbeat labels. The look leans towards the bohemian, maybe with some nordic influence, though most of the brands are actually Italian (one notable exception is Spanish Chie Mihara, absolutely adorable footwear). 

Different, in short, as conceived by Michele Adami and his lovely consort Elisa. Classic shoe retailing had been Michele‘s family business for 2 generations; Adami Sciuss is its antithesis. Michele and Elisa are on first-name terms with their suppliers: they’ve seen them at work, witnessed their pursuit of quality and craftsmanship and know the stories behind each product line. The concept is sustained through a pick of awesome accessories, fragrances by Meo Fusciuni, handmade porcelain and stoneware from Giovelab and the beautiful books born of Italy’s most stylish cooking blog, La Cucina di Calycanthus. Not to mention the store’s mascots Fiona and Golia, a couple of dachshunds posing among the displays, perfectly at home.

The location is one of the former family shops, transformed by notover-renovating so that all those gorgeous goods are set against a slightly shabby, very chic, vintage background. And here Michele and Elisa periodically host gatherings which fuse some of their (only apparently) eclectic interests, like the spectacular all-in-white dinner a couple of months ago for their 100 best customers, with Transit among the spread, innovative music, and Maite and Marie of La Cucina di Calycanthus looking after the edibles. All in it together for an amazing mise en scène. The sciuss + clotz, by the way, for those like me who take a while to grasp such subtleties, are but corruptions of shoes and clothes… Italianizations with a hefty nod to the German-speakers up in that neck of the woods.