Capsules, Events Add Buzz to Milan Fash Week
Missoni, Etro and Les Copains are marking their anniversaries with exhibitions and collections as events flesh out the city’s calendar.
MILAN — There are plenty of birthday candles to blow out this time around during Milan Fashion Week.
It’s a season of celebrations, starting with the Camera della Moda, which this year marks its own 60th anniversary. Etro is staging an exhibition for its 50th anniversary and Missoni and Les Copains cap off 65 and 60 years in business, respectively.
Missoni is planning a coed show on
Sept. 22 for 1,000 people, followed by a party. However, this is also a time to look ahead for the company, which in June revealed it was selling a minority stake to a government-backed private equity fund, FSI Midmarket Growth Equity Fund, for 70 million euros. Angela Missoni assumed the role of president, while maintaining her creative director title and former Valentino and Salvatore Ferragamo chief executive officer Michele Norsa has become vice president of the company.
Norsa believes this could be a “record” year for luxury, especially driven by
China and the U.S., which is performing “better than expected.” In Italy, there are question marks about how much interest the government will take in the fashion industry as it is focusing on other priorities, such as the country’s budget.
Norsa admitted that there is “an uncertainty that markets detest, which also creates anxiety in consumers with an effect on spending and a slowdown in investments” — a situation not limited to Italy but evident in other European countries as well.
The executive said he was “amazed” by the vitality of Milan, which has recently seen the opening of the new sleek Apple flagship designed by Foster + Partners and the long-awaited arrival of Starbucks — its first outpost in Italy — in a storied building that formerly housed the city’s central post office.
“There are so many tourists from many different countries. The attractiveness of Milan has grown very much, with its excellence of architecture, fashion, and a discovery of its artistic values,” said Norsa.
Asked about the calendar for fashion week, which runs from today to Sept. 24, he said “there is a permanent transformation with outside events and exhibitions that generate buzz and create interest. It’s a very positive moment for the city. All the other shows, from cruise to special events, weaken the system of runway shows, but they are at the same time useful to bring the brands around the world.”
Moncler chairman and ceo Remo Ruffini said there was “little we can do” about politics and geopolitical issues. “Problems are becoming increasingly international,” a fact he believes requires companies
“to be extremely flexible. We must stay focused and close to the market.”
Moncler Genius will today hold a presentation of what Ruffini called “an update” or an integration of the capsule project unveiled in February. “The Genius event is once a year, in February, to present a concept for 12 months,” he clarified. The executive was upbeat about the rollout of the capsules, begun in June. “It’s excellent and I am very satisfied with the execution. We had to change our culture, becoming a company with monthly deliveries, moving away from our seasonal structure.”
So far, Moncler Genius has launched the Fragment Hiroshi Fujiwara capsule, followed by Noir Kei Ninomiya, Moncler Craig Green and Moncler 1952, while the Simone Rocha designs will bow on Thursday. On Oct. 4, two temporary spaces, called The House of Genius, will open to the public in New York and Tokyo, carrying all the Moncler Genius collections. There also will be around 40 pop-up stores in some Moncler flagships and at select wholesalers. The pop-ups will launch the Palm Angels capsule. Pierpaolo Piccioli’s collection will be in stores on Oct. 11 while Moncler Grenoble will be available at the beginning of November. The last collection to be launched will be in early December and it will be the second drop of the Fragment Hiroshi Fujiwara capsule.
Massimo Ferretti, executive chairman of the Aeffe group, said he had “positive expectations” for Milan Fashion Week, which will see a change of locations for Alberta Ferretti, showing today in a bigger venue in Piazza Lina Bo Bardi, as well as for Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Moschino. The latter will also introduce its new fragrance with the show.
“We are planning three events on the same day, Sept. 22, for Philosophy, a brand which is giving us great satisfaction and visibility,” said Ferretti, citing the show at the Triennale Museum, a cocktail to present a pop-up store at Tearose Boutique, and an after-show party with Amanda Lear.
Ferretti emphasized how the group’s e- commerce site is increasingly a driver of growth and said the company is renovating the Moschino site, which will be followed by Alberta Ferretti by the end of October and by Philosophy. As reported last March, the group has partnered with Triboo to launch a global omnichannel distribution project, taking its online and off-line sales channels in-house. The online stores for Moschino, designed by Jeremy Scott; Alberta Ferretti, and Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini were previously operated by the Yoox Net-a-porter Group.
Just back from a trip through Asia and the Middle East, Roberto Cavalli ceo Gian Giacomo Ferraris also pointed to the brand’s new web site and e-commerce platform working with Black & White, Farfetch Group’s independently run business unit, with shipments to 120 countries. Ferraris struck a positive note, “confirming his year-end plan” to see the company break even in 2018, while conceding that the market is “tough, with a polarization of brands.”
He is spearheading a turnaround of the label, which is now designed by Paul Surridge. As reported, Italian private equity fund Clessidra SGR, which took control of the Florence-based brand in 2015, is said to be open to bringing in other investors to inject fresh capital and expand the fashion house. A new concept for Roberto Cavalli’s men’s division will be unveiled the day of the show on Sept. 22 at the brand’s Via Montenapoleone flagship. Ferraris said “there will be several capsules” the company will roll out in the second half of the year.
“Capsules are a way to be closer to consumers in a retail- oriented world, helping to gauge their response and refresh stores,” he said.
The company during New York Fashion Week opened what Ferraris called “an experiential laboratory” housed in a traditional brick town house in the revitalized Seaport District in Lower Manhattan. The two- story, 2,160- squarefoot space will host a series of activities, and showcase a selection of pieces from the brand’s collections as well as dedicated capsule collections. Ferraris pointed to the brand’s successful Viper sneaker, unveiled in June in Florence, which will be exclusively customized for the Seaport store. Further strengthening ties with the New York scene, while details are still under wraps, the company is developing a project in collaboration with a still-undisclosed American fashion institute.
A special Etro 50 capsule collection codesigned by siblings Veronica and
Kean Etro will mark the family brand’s 50th anniversary. Etro’s exhibition, ►