“Non desistas non exieris”
“Never give up, never surrender”; these were the immortal words that Roman generals imparted on to their weary troops to push through and continue to conquer lands far from home nearly two thousand years ago.
Today, this is the mantra taken up by Italy’s contemporary conquerers; the fashion and design industry. Despite being faced with seemingly impossible odds of pandemic-led closures, lockdowns and restricted travel this year, Italy is determined to reignite one of its most important exports and reassume its leadership on the world fashion stage.
To being this resurrection, DDW can reveal that the National Chamber of Italian Fashion (Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana) has placed a stake in the ground, announcing that Milan Fashion Week is back as early as February in both a traditional physical format and a newly introduced hybrid ‘phygital’ one (half physical / half digital – a term we will no doubt be hearing a lot of in 2021).
First up is the much awaited Men’s Week (Uomo), showing the Fall/Winter 2021/22 collection from the 15th-19th January featuring IRL fashion shows, digital presentations and some in the aforementioned phygital format.
Although the full schedule has yet to be released by the Camera, we are particularly looking forward to Etro, K-Way, Dolce & Gabbana and Fendi who have continued to be defiant in the face of adversity with full in-person runway shows. In addition to these, digital format presentations including Prada’s third season designed by Raf Simons (streaming at 2pm GMT on January 17th) as well as A-Cold-Wall, Brioni, Ermenegildo Zegna (*phygital), Diego della Valle’s Tod’s and Massimo Giorgetti’s MSGM will offer exciting new opportunities to engage with the brands on an international level.
Further, and taking a lead from its high-fashion cousins, the famous men’s tailoring focused show/trade-fair week ‘Pitti’ will be presented this coming year in two parts; Pitti Connect, a digital presentation taking place just before the 15th and Pitti Uomo, the full live trade show in February.
Alongside these ambitious phoenix-like steps towards fashion recovery, Italy is presenting its marquee Milano Fashion Week (women’s) on the 23rd of February-1st of March, complete with runways, presentations and events showcasing the F/W 21/22 collections. We anticipate incredible shows from names like Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, PHILOSOPHY di Lorenzo Serafini, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Bally, Bvlgari, Kiton and many others.
Finally, accentuating the early Milanese Fashion calendar this year will be the 7th edition of the Fashion Film Festival Milano, organised by Constanza Cavalli Etro and coinciding with Men’s Fashion Week from the 13th-18th of January.
All in all, an exciting start to 2021 and proof that there’s more to the Italian character than just the famous ‘dolce far niente’.