by MILAN – The Italian fashion chamber on Tuesday released the final schedule for the upcoming edition of Milan Fashion Week, which will take place from September 17 to 23 and will feature 57 physical shows, eight digital ones and 69 presentations.
Although there are no major changes compared to the provisional one issued in July, the chairman of the organization Carlo Capasa took the opportunity to evaluate the additional day gained by the city. As reported, major shows are already scheduled for September 17, which has historically offered a softer introduction to the event with direct institutional appointments.
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“It is an important step, a step that is very difficult to achieve because it has an impact on the international fashion calendar. We are located between London and Paris and we like our location, but we need to find some space,” said Capasa, pointing out that Milan is “probably the most crowded among the fashion calendars, if you consider you the ratio between the number of days. and events.”
He said he was “delighted” with the result, which means Fendi will officially start the week at 3 pm CET. Unofficially, Fiorucci will stage its first runway show under the new ownership and creative direction of Francesca Murri two hours earlier at the Triennale Milano museum, which is planned to honor the late founder of the brand with an exhibition this fall.
“In the future I hope we can start from Tuesday morning, not evening,” said Capasa.
But, considering that the last day is dedicated only to digital shows and that Giorgio Armani is decamping from Milan Fashion Week to present his spring 2025 show in New York on October 17 and will not close the week as before, is there still a chance that a fashion crowd will move to the next stage of the fashion marathon in Paris earlier, thus canceling the effort to get the extra slots.
“It is true that we will miss the Giorgio Armani show on Sunday, but it is a one-off event and Armani is still very much present in the calendar with two Emporio Armani shows. He never failed to show his support for Italian fashion,” said Capasa. He also pointed out that many brands that chose the presentation format exclusively this time could return to runway shows, reiterating his opinion that “we will need more space and more in the future.”
For one, Tom Ford will not stage a runway show following the departure of creative director Peter Hawkings and will present his spring 2025 collection in his Milan showroom on September 19.
Meanwhile, Ports 1961 will adopt the same format to unveil the first collection designed by Francesco Bertolini on September 21, and Brioni and MSGM, who celebrated their 15th anniversary with a coed show in June, will choose to attend appointments.
Other brands to choose the format include the likes of Giada, Maccapani and Taller Marmo as well as a host of emerging labels such as Retori, Quantico and Gio Giovanni Gerosa.
A number of collaborations will be revealed in the same way, including Max Mara’s weekend pairing with “Emily in Paris” actress Ashley Park and the connection between Max & Co. and celebrity stylist Lorenzo Posocco.
A series of milestones will be celebrated throughout the week, including Iceberg’s 50th anniversary, which will be held at a coed show and party on September 17. Laura Biagiotti will also celebrate 50 years since the stage of her first show during Milan Fashion Week, returning to. physical runway event on September 21st.
In addition, Fuascailt will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a show on September 17, and Vogue Italia will celebrate its 60th anniversary with an exhibition at Palazzo Citterio that will take place from September 19 to 21.
Dampening the festive mood a bit, economic forecasts shared on Tuesday showed that 2024 sales of fashion and related industries (including textiles, clothing, leather goods, footwear, jewelry, eyewear and cosmetics) will decrease by 3.5 percent to 97.7 billion euros compared to 2023.
Capasa said the 6.1 percent contraction in sales in the first half of 2024 continues the slowdown that the industry began in the second half of last year.
While he pointed to geopolitical instability as well as weak domestic demand as key elements that impacted performance, he acknowledged that industry sales doubled after COVID-19, a pace that is unlikely to be sustained in the long run.
In particular, updated figures for 2023 showed that the entire sector grew by 2.5 percent to reach record sales of 101.3 billion euros. In 2022 sales grew by 20.8 percent to 98.8 billion euros compared to 2021, when the total turnover also increased by more than 20 percent.
Exports continued to be the driver of the Italian fashion industry in 2023, growing by 2.9 percent to 88.8 billion euros. Projections for 2024 confirm the positive trend, with exports of the overall sector expected to grow by 5.5 percent to 93.7 billion euros compared to 2023.
The forecast is based on the performance registered in the first five months of 2024, when exports grew by 5.1 percent compared to the same period last year. But there is a significant split between clusters of sectors: exports of the “core” categories – textiles, clothing, leather goods and footwear – fell by 3.8 per cent, while exports of companies working in jewelry, eyewear and cosmetics rose by 29.6 per cent, boosted at the 58 percent spike reported by the jewelry sector.
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