Women’s fashion, with Europe and China, exports exceed pre-Covid levels

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One hundred and seventy appointments on the calendar, from today to Monday 28 February, for the Milan women’s fashion week, most of which in attendance. In addition, three fairs in as many places in the city: yesterday Lineapelle opened in Rho (with MipelLab), today it’s up to Filo (high-end yarns) at the MiCo congress center and tomorrow White opens, which will animate the Tortona area and this year it involves the spaces of Mudec, the museum of cultures which in the past has hosted various exhibitions related to fashion, from the retrospective on Etro to the very recent event on Achille Lauro’s clothes and aesthetics.

Exports shine again

A city and a system, the Italian TMA (textile-fashion-accessory), which are starting up again: for the first time in two years we can breathe that climate of energy and trust that always, before Covid, the fashion weeks ( four a year) lead to Milan. But it’s not just a question of sentiment, as the economists say, but numbers: the related industries have restarted (see yesterday’s Il Sole 24 Ore), with restaurants, hotels and services, from catering to the fitters of catwalks, showrooms and exhibition stands. Above all, exports have returned to shine, as certified by the data of Sistema Moda Italia (Smi), the most important component, in terms of turnover and companies, of Confindustria Moda. In particular, for the women’s sector – in the showcase these days in Milan – we can see the return to pre-Covid levels.

Record-breaking China: together with Hong Kong it is second only to France

Estimates on Istat data for the period January-October 2021 indicate a growth in exports of 19.2% to eight billion, with a positive sign in all categories of the women’s segment: the record belongs to knitwear (+ 25.3%), the smaller percentage, so to speak, concerns shirts (+ 7.3%). The trend makes it possible to exceed the same period of 2019 by 0.3%. The total turnover estimated by the Confindustria Moda Study Center for the whole of 2021, driven, in fact, by exports, is 13.5 billion, still three points below 2019 (14 billion), but in greater recovery compared to the ‘man, which in 2021 grew by 11.9% compared to 2020, but remains below 2019 by 9.9%. In addition to the European Union (+ 18.9% on average, with a peak of 23.6% for France), China, with exports at + 63%, gave the greatest contribution to women’s growth. If added to those to Hong Kong (up by 18.9%), exports to China, in the period January-October 2021, are close to one billion euros and are second only to those to France.

Milan is once again the protagonist

There are other data that are worth considering, talking about today’s sentiment and forecasts for the whole year for the TMA and that start from an honest comparison with the other fashion capitals: London yesterday closed a largely unbalanced session on the digital front, with collections made, in large part, to snatch a post on Instagram, not orders from buyers. Moreover, buyers who have already arrived in Milan from Europe, America and even Russia, as confirmed by Carlo Capasa, president of the Chamber of Fashion, the association that organizes fashion weeks. New York, which up to a decade ago also attracted Italian brands, in this first test of 2022 seemed in fact – let it be said, of course, with regret – irrelevant. Thanks to the slow exit from Covid in Manhattan, where offices, shops and restaurants remain half-empty due to smartworking, New York cannot hold a candle to Milan or Paris, which will pick up the baton on 1 March and remain the week with which (healthily ) to compete.

A final note deserves the retail scene in Milan, with the opening of the large Armani Exchange store, the many renovations and the ferment of the luxury quadrilateral, Brera and even Via Torino, which had suffered a lot in 2020 and 2021.