Seeing your best expectations exceeded is a rare privilege in the past year. Yet, this is what happened to the Italian fashion industry, according to data from the Fashion Economic Trends of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, disclosed yesterday on the occasion of the presentation of the next Milan Fashion Week Men’s Collection, the men’s fashion week to be held in Milan from 18 to 22 June: the February edition of Trends estimated a maximum increase of 15% in turnover for 2021, a figure revised up to + 17% thanks to the reopening of recent weeks, the positive trend of vaccination campaigns and a renewed climate of consumer and business confidence.
Turnover expected at + 17%. In March recovery at + 50%
«The turnover figures for the first few months, and especially for March, mark a turning point and an important turnaround – explained Carlo Capasa, president of the Chamber of Fashion -. We are doing better than expected, we should close 2021 with revenues up 17% to 80.4 billion, a value still 10% lower than in the pre-Covid period but which marks a clear recovery and which portends a return. to pre-pandemic levels in 2022 ”. If in February the fashion turnover was only 9% lower than a year earlier, when Covid was starting to spread beyond Chinese borders, in March it increased by 50% compared to March 2020, with peaks of 70% for clothing and footwear, symptoms of widespread revenge shopping for categories that have long been penalized by lockdowns and restrictions on social activities.
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Export forecast to rise by 13%
However, there are still inevitable symptoms of uncertainty: “The trend of orders in the first months of the year did not go according to expectations, exports are struggling to restart and are down by 16%, with the solid exception of China, where fashion exports increased by 85.3% in the first two months of the year – continued Capasa -. In 2021, exports should rise by 13%, to 63.4 billion. But the domestic market is reacting better than abroad for now ».
The program of the men’s fashion shows in Milan
As part of the upcoming Milan Fashion Week, which will present 63 brands’ men’s collections for spring-summer 2022, another sign of a return to pre-pandemic normality is the return of four shows in attendance: Dolce & Gabbana on June 19, Etro the 20 and Giorgio Armani on the 21st with two events at the headquarters in via Borgonuovo. The other appointments on the calendar will take place in the proven way phygital, therefore in hybrid form.
Among the most anticipated debuts, all concentrated on the day of June 21, that of the new creative director of Diesel, Glenn Martens, who will present an all-gender collection, that of Knt (Kiton New Textures), Kiton’s urbanwear project designed by Mariano and Walter De Matteis, and the first collection created by Andrea Pompilio for Harmont & Blaine. The digital platform of the Chamber of Fashion will re-propose the formula of virtual showrooms, multi or single-brand, a platform to which a special banner will also be sent on the websites of the stores associated with the Camera Buyer Italia. “In the next few days we will define the guidelines for safe reception together with Ats – continued Capasa -, and we will offer free tampons to the press and accredited buyers”.