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Milan (AFP)
Lights, cameras, live audience — Milan fashion welcomed back real people to its events on Friday, a sign that the industry is ready to start turning the page on the virtual format adopted during the pandemic.
The numbers are modest, with only Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and Etro inviting viewers to their men’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection. “This is a dress rehearsal to return to normalcy,” Federica Trotta Mureau, editor of Italian fashion magazine Mia Le Journal, told AFP.
The shows represent a small step but the effects of live events, instead of the video presentations or short films relied on since early last year when the coronavirus cut shows twice a year in the Italian business capital, will still be appreciated, Mureau said.
“The lights going out and coming back on, the music that was heard as soon as the first model came out… those are emotions that digital cannot give us,” he said.
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Armani was the first in late May to announce a public return, having been the first to shut it down in February 2020.
“I was scared, like everyone else,” said Giorgio Armani, 86, when the pandemic hit Italy last year.
– Goodbye dull shades –
Most of the 47 fashion shows spanning five days will remain digital.
That’s exactly what happened to Ermenegildo Zegna, who kicked off the show on Friday with a virtual display featuring models wandering through a maze of greenery before returning to an urban concrete landscape.
“This marks a renaissance of luxury craft, a movement that liberates men while maintaining their uniqueness,” said the brand’s artistic director, Alessandro Sartori.
Fendi comes next, on Saturday; Prada’s virtual show is scheduled for Sunday.
While still a small minority, the return of some live shows is an “important signal of recovery”, according to Carlo Capasa, president of the National Chamber for Italian Fashion.
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After months of stop-start measures, coronavirus restrictions across much of Italy have now been lifted thanks to a drop in infection rates, although masks are still mandatory in public places and social distancing must be respected.
Capasa expects sales for the Italian fashion market to rise 17 percent this year to 80 billion euros ($95 billion), driven largely by growth in China. Exports of “Made in Italy” fashion are expected to increase by 13 percent.
But only in 2022 will the country’s fashion industry regain pre-pandemic levels, especially as orders during the first months of 2021 have fallen below expectations.
Last year, revenue fell 26 percent for Italian industry, as shops closed and wealthy tourists stayed home.
So what will the Milan man wear next year?
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After winter’s gray and pandemic gloom, colors found in nature like light green, navy blue, terracotta, sunshine yellow or fire red should prevail, according to Mureau.
“Goodbye to subdued colors and overly punishing looks, summer 2022 in men’s fashion will be marked by color and overdo,” he said.
AFP 2021
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