Has Milan Fashion Week really been a 'fiasco'?
Both in that parade and in all the others there were press correspondents from China, Japan, Russia and the United States, although all based in Europe. Fashion writers from The Guardian and The Sunday Times had also made the trip. And while the number of in-person shoppers dropped significantly, those who made it, from Moscow's Tsum to London's Selfridges, Harrods and Harvey Nichols, also shared the grandstand.
A great advantage of attending a fashion week in person is that you share pearls of wisdom with the rest of the world. Thanks to recommendations from two well-respected Italian colleagues, I went off the beaten track to check out Vitelli, a great Italian sustainable knitwear brand that cooperates internationally. A big drawback of attending a fashion week in person is that you don't stop, which is why I haven't been able to write about Vitelli yet (but I will).
After Valentino, on Sunday, I was the jury at the Milan Fashion Graduate contest, where Giulia Barbieri's collection was deservedly recognized. Later, I met with the president of the Camera Della Moda, Carlo Capasa, and asked him, with the week almost over, what he thought of how everything had worked out. His response was: “I think it has been a complete success because we haven't been able to do anything else. This is the situation there is. And we have to deal with it. Before this week, it was thought that no physical parade would be possible, and in the end there were not as many as usual, but quite a few. And true, yes, as you say, unfortunately there have not been as many journalists or as many buyers as usual, but the positive thing is that at no time has it come to me that no one felt insecure or that health was not being given the maximum priority".
When I asked him about the headline of Le Figaro, Capasa was very diplomatic – and given that the predicted 'fiasco' never took place, boy was he. Turns out the headline was wrong. But anyway, at this moment we have to be united, Italy, France, England, the United States. We have to unite and find new formats to move forward with. Because behind all those dresses that we see, there is the livelihood of many people and we have to make an effort to protect it. There is a kind of rivalry between fashion weeks, but ultimately, we are part of the same organization and we all want things to go well for us… So we are all going to try to contribute to the good energy that we need in fashion. and to define new ways of functioning in order to continue being creative and productive”.
