Milan Fashion Week: 'ready-to-buy' issue divides designers

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Feb 28, 2016

The debate on the redesign of the fashion calendars is raging at Milan Fashion Week. Backstage at the shows, every single designer is expressing an opinion on the matter. Giorgio Armani provided a statement of his own, through a press release sent to all journalists.

"I believe that a revision of the calendars is in some way advisable: the time is ripe for it, and not just for the explosion in numbers. However, I think it is too early to get carried away by the fascination for 'see now, buy now'," he explained.

According to Armani, for this innovation to be effective and sustainable, it will be necessary to "intervene at every stage of the development process, so as to create a suitable operational mechanism, and not simply yet another communications exercise."

"I am not disturbed by the fact that everything is available online immediately on social media. Daily papers have always been doing this. I would like to realign the presentations' calendar to that of in-store sales with discernment, balance and efficiency. This will take time and, of course, a strategic adjustment at all levels, which I am ready to undertake," he concluded.

Other fashion labels, following actions taken by Burberry and Tom Ford, announced from this season their intention of launching initiatives designed to sell some of their products right after the show. It is the case of Prada, which will put on sale two new handbag models, the ‘Cahier’ and the ‘Pionnière’, available from Friday 26th February, the day after the show, exclusively in selected stores: those at Via Montenapoleone and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, at avenue Montaigne and rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, and Old Bond Street and Sloane Street in London. The two models will be also available from 4th March at Prada's New York stores at Broadway, Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue.

Ennio Capasa, the designer-founder of Costume National, for his part is steering clear of this approach. "If fashion designers work merely to satisfy the market, there is no time to inspire dreams, emotions and creativity. There is too much marketing going on at the moment," he reckons.