Milan, Italy
By Andrea Caravita
Until early 2020 my city was the “place to be” in Europe — the capital of fashion, finance, a rising destination for luxury tourism, with new museums, exhibitions and concerts. Then, during Milan Fashion Week in February, editors who’d flown in from all over the world started rescheduling their flights. They were in Milan but wanted to escape as soon as possible. They found themselves in the city that was the epicentre of Covid-19 in Europe.
In early March, I woke up to see a picture of Milan on the front page of an important US newspaper. It reported that the capital of Italian glamour had become a ghost town. Streets were empty, stores closed and trains full of people escaping the city.
Milanese people began expressing their love for the city on social media, on balconies, clapping hands for the
Italian national health service and flying the national flag from their windows. After a couple of days the national lockdown started. The night our prime minister addressed the nation on TV, I ran to the supermarket to stock up on food. I felt like a thief during a robbery. I was just buying bread and pasta but I was shaking, panicking, and had no idea what the future would hold. WhatsApp chats were filled with confidential information from hospitals: doctors were struggling to save lives. Hospitals were full. To help, we all had to stay home. I spent two months at home alone.
I have dedicated my life to fashion. Fashion is Italy’s second-largest revenue stream. Covid-19 started its spread at the beginning of the summer shopping season in Europe. Stores have been closed since early March and this means no clothes have been sold. The factories have also been closed. The virus has stopped an enormous sector, often seen as just sparkle, frivolous in comparison to the serious pursuits of life, but it is a huge industrial engine for my country and provides jobs for a large number of people.
We went back to the office for the first time this week. It was empty and clean. Savvy old seamstresses had left their homes for the first time in months to come back and try to rebuild the fashion industry’s dreams. Managers are trying not to fire employees, and publicists (like me) are trying to find creative ways of communicating to get the idea across that fashion is so much more than a nice dress. Fashion is personal expression, a way of life and an unlimited source of creative freedom that lifts the spirits of the world. How? We will do it digitally. Hopefully tech will save the dream.