Italy has been most famous for its history, food, music, customs, dolce vita lifestyle, but it has become a worldwide icon for its fashion, and Milan, amongst all Italian and international cities, is truly the capital of fashion in the world. Milano is a passionate and magical place with beautiful, often crowded, walkable streets, sophisticated people in every corner, wonderful monuments, fun pubs and elegant restaurants, historical orange colored trams, a breathtaking Duomo, and of course infinite trendy clothing and shoe stores...waiting for the milanesi and visitors to invade them and go wild.
Shopping, in fact, represents an important part of life here, a ritual no one can ignore, not even tourists, who want to have a glance of the real milanese habitual life, thus experiencing the fashion world at its best. The quadrilatero della moda is certaintly a must-see of the city, the most famous fashion quadrangle in the world: via Montenapoleone, via della Spiga, via Manzoni, corso Venezia...astounding fashion steets or vie that truly thrill whoever lays an eye on them. The fact is that the milanesi are all fashion victims...making Milan the earthly paradise of designers and brands. Here is where they sell, here is where they contaminate people with the fashion sickness, a contagious disease that gives you goosebumps and makes you feel super chic...at all times.
But who sets the parameters of fashion? Who really decides the next season's trends?
It's a mystery. It's like a board of fashion experts, who through extensive research and numerous meetings, decide what should be done next. But no one really knows who the members of such board are. The only certainty, though, is that fairs are a huge part of trends and of fashion in general. It is through fairs that most of the business occurs and where most sources of inspiration, for the next season, come from. These fairs, though, are not open to the general public, only gli addetti or "authorized personnel" can participate in them, making them quite exclusive and unique for the few non addetti who can see them...say, as "fashion tourists."
So this means that big brands and designers like Giorgio Armani or Jimmy Choo go to these fairs to know what's going to be trendy, so that they can work on their new collections? Yes and No. Yes, their representatives do go, but only to see what "others" are planning on doing, what others' starting points are. In this way, their collections can be truly unique because they don't really do what others do. This, however, doesn't mean that they do the exact opposite...they just go beyond what they see, breaking all boundaries, and letting their creativity loose. So, No, they consider fairs important, but not their main source of inspiration. So trends do not really exist. Hard to believe, but true.
The first important fair is Anteprima, which presents colors and the nonexistent trends of the coming season, six months in advance (of course). It is only open to designers, stylists, and professional people in the fashion sector. Then, after a month or so the fairs Micam, for shoes, Mipel, for bags, and Mifur, like its name says, for fur, are held and are open to a wider range of the fashion world: all fashion operators, from designers to store owners.
This year, they were held at Rho Fiera, just outside the city, from March 6th to 9th. Each fair has its own pavilion and in each pavilion there are hundreds of stands, each assigned to a particular stylist, designer, or brand. Micam, for example, had 10 pavilions: 1 and 3 presented footwear for sophisticated women, 2 and 5 for international designers and women trendy shoes, 4 for men shoes and elegant-luxury women shoes, 6, 8, 9, and 10 exposed young fashion shoes and children shoes, and 7 was for mixed shoes. Pavilion 1 alone had approximately 205 stands! This means that a buyer had to visit 205 shoe stores and decide which shoes were best for his store, and had 9 more pavilions to go....tiring, quite tiring. But for shoe lovers these stands are paradise!
Each stand was special in its own way. Imagine a shoe store, but much fancier: many shoes beautifully displayed, impeccable shop windows, friendly and (of course) sexy and beautiful female shop assistants who helped potential buyers make up their minds, (many stands, but not all) a reception to welcome buyers, fashionable and expensive-looking sofas and small meeting desks inside the stand...so that buyers can comfortably sit while discussing business. Besides the general extravagance, the one small detail that truly marked the difference between one of these stands and an actual shoe store down the street was that there was only the right shoe for each pair. So for each model, you could only see, touch, fall in love with the right shoe. The left was probably not even made yet. Even the "stand" assistants would wear different shoes, one model on the right foot and a different one on the left foot. No, they did not get dressed in the dark! Wearing two different shoes is part of the fun of being involved at Micam fair!
The reason is simple: they are not shoe stores (although they sure look like them) so they cannot sell shoes to anyone, since they are still just prototypes, what's the point in doing both shoes if the pair might not even go to production, and because it is a tradition...a tradition that somehow tries to safeguard exclusivity. Someone could try to steal a shoe and then make a replica or a very similar one. Not ok to do, of course, but quite common in the fashion industry.
Stands at Mipel were also very fancy and colorful. There were millions of bags in all different sizes and colors. Mipel, although the bag show of the year, also presents accessories. For this reason, there were many small stands with all kinds of jewellery in metal, gold, silver, fabric, wire...and the most unimaginable materials. Rumors say that on the last day of the show, visitors could buy (even though it's strictly forbidden) maybe a pair of earrings or necklaces or even bags!
The most impressive fair though, at least for first-time visitors, is Mifur. Here stands are not just fancy, they are luxurious! Wide bright stands everywhere. Fur coats that take your breath away, for better or worse. Animal lovers, of course, find this fair a cemetery.
Hundreds of furs, all colors, all styles...a tragedy for animal activists, a paradise for fashion victims!
No comments:
Post a Comment