There is a prophetic photo from 1985 that immortalizes twelve Italian designers – including Armani, Missoni, Versace, Ferrè – who with their creations would have given the world of fashion a radical transformation. In the background, the spiers of the Duomo, symbol of a Milan that was emerging and, in the years to come, would have struggled to grow and increase its international appeal.
The Lombard capital today has a central and unique position in the global fashion scene. It is an authoritative and multifaceted hub that brings together the different souls of fashion: from production – there are over 12,000 fashion companies in the metropolitan area, with about 88,000 employees according to the Chamber of Commerce – to distribution, with hundreds of permanent showrooms. Passing through training, culture. And of course events such as fashion week.
Synergy between individuals and institutions
«In the last 10 years the city has totally changed its breath – explains Alessia Cappello, councilor for Economic Development and Labor Policies, with responsibility for fashion – becoming an international metropolis where fashion, design and culture are intertwined. Thanks to a great deal of work on positioning ». A milestone also achieved thanks to the synergy between public and private that the councilor defines as «one of the assets of this city: since the dawn here things have been done together and the strategy works. So we must insist on creating a system ». A practical example comes from this fashion week: «The Preview brand celebrates 30 years and parades at the Arco della Pace. Having the patronage of the Municipality, the rent for the location is halved, so the brand has undertaken to invest the portion saved in civic schools, supplying fabrics and financing scholarships »concludes Cappello.
Assist the system from the city
The one who has been working for years on the positioning of Milan on the international scene is the National Chamber of Italian fashion which signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Municipality, renewed in February: “I believe that the work done together in recent years has strengthened the Italian fashion system , giving even more authority to our city and our fashion week »says president Carlo Capasa. Sustainability is also the glue: “The acceleration of brands in the implementation of sustainable practices and the attention to issues such as inclusion have made the supply chain more united and aware, producing many initiatives based on sharing”.
Not just fashion shows
One of the faces of this sharing is that of times and, at times, spaces between trade fairs and fashion shows. In fact, in recent days, Rho Fiera hosted Homi Fashion & Jewels and then Mipel, Micam and The One. Today opens the three days dedicated to Lineapelle and Simach Tanning Tech. On the 22nd it will be White’s turn in the Tortona area. In total, there are thousands of exhibitors and tens of thousands of visitors: “The fairs move a very well-defined induced: each euro generated directly by the Italian trade fair system produces a further 1.4 in the national economy – explains Luca Palermo, CEO of Milan fair – . Many operators take advantage of their presence to discover the city. We try to feed this pouring into cultural places with dedicated projects ». Like the event “The art of doing fashion” which brought together seven fairs at the Ambrosiana Art Gallery. The attractiveness of the city, moreover, stimulates that of the fairs and vice versa: «The numbers of the seven fashion shows in progress these weeks are good: the brands present are over 3,200. A concrete sign that being synergistic is the keystone ».