Milan Fashion Week Review - Were So Many Runway Shows With Guests Really Necessary?
Hello and welcome to the 25th issue of moderated, a newsletter created to dive into insights and phenomenons in the Fashion Industry. It also has a curation and summary of the most talked last week’s events of the industry, offering further readings for more details.
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In this week’s moderated, I brought the highlights of the Milan Fashion Week, reflecting if so many live shows were necessary during a Covid-19 second wave in Europe.
But before jumping into the main article, check the last week’s recap of the Fashion Industry.
Last Week’s Recap
Kenzo Takada Dies Due to Covid-19
We had sad news for the fashion industry. Kenzo Takada passed away this Sunday from Covid-19 related complications. The designer aged 81 became notorious for founding the brand Kenzo during the 1970s and growing it into a global fashion house recognized for its apparel and perfumes. Kenzo Takada was one of the first male students at Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo, and the first Japanese designer to find success in Paris. For the years to come, his brand became extremely prestigious by mixing Takada’s references to his native Japan and his life in Paris. In 1993, the Kenzo brand was bought by LVMH. Takada was Kenzo’s creative director until 1999, when he amicably decided to retire from his own label to dedicate himself to art.
The fashion house Kenzo shared some words after the passing of its founder:
“For half a century, Mr. Takada has been an emblematic personality in the fashion industry always infusing creativity and colour into the world. Today, his optimism, zest for life, and generosity continue to be pillars of our Maison (House). He will be greatly missed and always remembered.”
Kenzo will always remain one of the most respected figures in fashion and his work will continue serving as an inspiration for many future generations of creators.
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Shanghai Fashion Week Will Be Physical and Focus On the Domestic Market
After the fashion month and its many shows that went from digital, to physical, to a blend of both – and did not fill the expectations – Shanghai Fashion Week will mark the comeback of the physical fashion weeks. The event will happen from 8 to 18 of October and has more than 90 physical shows and many other events on its schedule. The brands, as usual, go from high street labels such as Urban Revivo to independent designers like Angel Chen. Normally, some up-and-coming Chinese fashion talents would show their collections overseas - but not this year. With the importance of the Chinese domestic market increasing due to how the country dealt with Covid-19, they chose to take part in Shanghai Fashion Week. The successful control of the pandemic in China made the country's economy restart earlier and recover faster than in the US and Europe. Now, Chinese fashion consumers are the hope of survival for many international brands and retailers - but domestic brands have an advantage.
Concurrent to Shanghai Fashion Week, there are the Mode Shanghai’s trade show and showrooms such as Ontime. Both usually have a large presence of international labels. This year, however, with the travel difficulties due to the pandemic, fewer international brands will take part in it. On the other hand, domestic buyers are expected to come in force and will probably invest heavily in China-based brands and designers, which will be able to attend these events. For international brands, this will represent a new level of competition from Chinese domestic brands. Are we entering a new era for Chinese fashion brands that will shake up the global fashion industry?
I suggest taking a look at this BoF article to learn more about this topic.
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Second-Hand Exporters and Recycling Companies Are Collapsing
The multi-billion-dollar trade in second-hand clothing is a vital tool that helps to prevent the global fashion industry’s growing pile of waste going straight to landfills. It consists of selling second-hand clothes from developed countries to often poorer nations from Latin American, Eastern Europe, and Africa. Just to illustrate how important this market is, up to a third of clothes donated in the US ends up for sale in developing countries. Now, this sector is in crisis.
With the pandemic, textile recyclers and exporters had to cut down their prices as business slows down in end markets abroad. The exporter Antonio de Carvalho went from charging £570 a tone to £400, which makes it hard for his company and many others to pay the costs of collection, storage, and transportation. Due to that, their warehouses are pilling up with products. At the same time, buyers in developing countries are struggling without enough inventory and footfall drop. If it wasn’t ironic enough, donations peaked with people cleaning their closets while home during the lockdown. To illustrate, this is the second-hand exporters’ crisis in numbers:
To further read about this crisis, check this BoF article.
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H&M to Cut 5% of It’s Stores Worldwide
H&M announced it will be closing 250 stores worldwide in 2021, which accounts for 5% of the retailer’s 5,000 stores. The company justified the decision by stating that with the pandemic more consumers started shopping online. H&M is not the only retailer that shared plans to close stores due to the rise of online shopping. American Eagle Outfitter (AEO), GameStop (GME), and Inditex, which owns Zara and other fast-fashion brands, also announced similar strategies.
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Gucci Enters the Resale Market in a Partnership With The RealReal
Luxury has historically avoided entering the space of second-hand sales, afraid of degrading the brand’s value. But even before the pandemic, things were shifting due to circular economy conversations. The lockdown impact, with second-hand platforms’ revenues going up, was the last push they needed to change the rules. The latest brand to enter this market is Gucci, in a partnership with the consignment site The RealReal. Both will provide a curated selection of Gucci products that will be available until the end of the year at The RealReal platform in the US. The move fits not only Gucci’s efforts to build a more sustainable brand but also The RealReal approach to luxury and sustainability. The reseller platform previously worked with Burberry and Stella McCartney.
Rating La Mode - Siduations
This week I am suggesting the Instagram account Siduations, which has fun by photoshopping fashion references into random scenarios. With overdressed models pasted into everyday situations to the White House, the creative Instagram account can take a smile from you now and then while giving some fashion content…I guess. It’s just those types of things I follow to take the fashion industry less seriously sometimes. The person behind the account is Sidney Prawatyotin, who started Siduations as a hobby. To know more about him, you can check this article from Elle UK.
Milan Fashion Week Review - Were So Many Runway Shows With Guests Really Necessary?
The Milan Fashion Week happened from the 22 to 28 of September and impressed many with its large number of physical shows with guests. Amid a new wave of Covid-19 cases in Europe, the decision of so many brands to host runway shows with attendees was criticized by some publications. Large brands like Gucci and Bottega Veneta decided to don’t take part in the event. Other large fashion houses like Versace, Prada, and Moschino preferred to keep this season’s shows digital. But then, labels like Valentino, Valentino, Philosophy by Lorenzo Serafini, and Dolce & Gabbana went back to the physical format of fashion shows.
Italy may not be climbing in Covid-19 cases as much as France - which I will tap into next week regarding the complete out of touch indoor fashion shows during Paris Fashion Week - but still, the situation is not fully normalized and many questioned how relevant it was to hold live shows that put guests and staff in danger. It is unanimous that digital shows are not the same as live ones, and I 100% agree with it. But with travel limitations still being imposed, most buyers, editors, influencers, and celebrities couldn’t attend the events anyway.
I am craving for the comeback of fashion weeks with live shows as much as everyone else, but I can’t stop thinking that hosting runway shows with guests right now is just unnecessary. Fashion can wait just a little longer to go back to it, especially since some of the most commented shows of Milan Fashion Week were not even live. It is not worth it…in my opinion of course. What is yours?
Now let’s go to the review of Milan Fashion Week highlights:
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Raf Simons Debut on Prada
Probably the most anticipated show of Milan Fashion Week was Prada, which recently hired Raf Simons to be its co-creative director with Miuccia Prada. Since the announcement of Raf Simons entering Prada, everything that was planned for the new partnership went wrong. With the Covid-19 pandemic, the designer could not start to develop his first collection with Miuccia Prada in April, shortening the time they had to create their debut collection. Still, the duo did it and chose to present it in a digital format. The collection was called “Dialogues” and it was the beginning of a new phase for Prada.
It may seem that the timing of this new phase was not ideal, but if you think about it, the two designers created a new Prada uniform for new times. The timing may have been perfect. The collection brought back Prada’s 90s attitude throw “ugly prints” and Raf Simons personal touch of words and graphics printed on pastel satin dresses. Also, it had something both designers love creating: a lot of outwear. The result was a perfect balance between Miuccia’s and Simon’s aesthetics that perfectly fitted the Prada brand. The video presentation was long, over 30 minutes, and could have been catchier, but in the end, it was all about the clothes and accessories. The digital show ended with both designers answering questions handpicked from Instagram, which if you want o know more about their work together is a must watch!
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Moschino Marionettes Shows
Moschino shows are always major productions to entertain everyone taking part in it. With the pandemic, Moschino’s creative director Jeremy Scott elaborated a marionettes show to release 40 couture-level miniature looks. The metaphor of the idea is given: political puppeteering, “strings attached,” and questions of real versus fake. The pieces also revealed their couture-like construction, a twist that you always expect from Moschino. As Scott said in an interview with Vogue:
“The best thing I could do for everyone who is stressed about the election, the pandemic, social unrest, and the future was to give the gift of fantasy and take us away from all of it for a few minutes; let us enjoy this little fashion world of ours.”
Since the beginning of the lockdown, Scott had decided he wouldn’t host a runway show with guests. Instead, inspired by the exhibition Théâtre de la Mode after WWII, he went to the creator of Muppets, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, to create a marionettes fashion show. The 40 looks were first created in real life size and then scaled down to puppet size. The show even had fashion editors’ marionettes on the first row watching the show. Surprisingly, the miniature show was more expensive than a normal Moschino runway show. I take my hat for this one! Moschino nailed the 2020 digital fashion show format that still makes a buzz.
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Valentino Returned to Milan
Pierpaolo Piccioli presented a Valentino collection for the first time in Milan as a declaration of support for the Italian fashion system. For the show, he turned a warehouse into a greenhouse, arranging flowers and plants around an industrial building. The fashion house welcomed around 200 guests (one fifth the number of a usual Valentino fashion show) and casted non-professional models from the streets of Milan, Paris, and London. Singer, songwriter, and producer Labrinth performed some of his hits during the show.
The collection had a very down-to-earth feeling to it. It was all about re-signification, as Piccioli explained: “I focused on working more on Valentino’s identity than on its aesthetics.” Even with some Piccioli signature flower-printed gowns, the show was more taken by minimal looks, with a radical romanticism touch. There was also the surprising Extra Large reinterpretation of the Valentino signature Rock Stud. As usual, Pierpaolo Piccioli kept Valetino’s light sophistication while bringing some refreshing change to its aesthetics.
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Versace’s Diverse Atlantis
Donatella Versace’s read of a post-pandemic was: there can be no re-emergence without prior submergence. Therefore her inspiration was imagined ruins of Atlantis with its mythical citizens rising from the deep ocean. In clothes and accessories, that translated in a comeback of Gianni Versace’s prints from ‘trésor de la mer’ collection in spring 1992. The show was live-streamed and the only guests were the brand’s staff. The cast of models carried Donatella’s ongoing messages of body positivity and gender-nonconformity. Some clothes did look a bit too costumey, but still, the pieces had a sparkle few designers adventure themselves to give.
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Boss Refreshing Last Minute Show
Boss came in a rush from Germany to rapidly put a live show together for 133 guests in Milan. “We were one of the last ones who showed last season, and we are one of the first to show now,” said Ingo Wilts, the Chief Brand Officer of Boss, to Vogue. The spring/summer 2021 collection supposed to be full of tailoring and heritage when it started to be made last year. However, with the pandemic changing everything, the collection plans changed too. According to Wilts, this is the most casual Boss collection so far, and all that while still keeping some tailoring and lots of sophistication. The colour palette was beautiful too, with many monochromatic looks. As many Milan Fashion Weeks shows this season, Boss spring/summer 2021 was refreshing.
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Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani was the first brand to cancel a fashion show back in February 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit Italy in the middle of fashion week. For his September show, he decided to broadcast the production to the Italian TV network La7 as a gesture of rebooting the industry. The collection was around the concept of timeless design, which fitted well the celebration of Giorgio Armani—the longest-working designer in fashion—and the women and men who wear him. It was all about transmitting the idea of investment pieces and universal style consistency. Something about the show just felt relaxing, as if Armani was giving us permission to explore beauty and style without overdoing it. Regarding the pandemic impact on the fashion industry, Giorgio Armani made a strong statement:
“Where the (fashion) industry is concerned, in my opinion, we have been due for a reckoning for a while now. Concerns like waste, the environment, too much product of poor quality, a marketing-driven approach that can lead to a disconnection with what the consumer really wants… I hope that fashion will now review its priorities, learning from this experience”
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Philosophy Has Your Picnic Outfit
Lorenzo Serafini, the creative director of Philosophy, hosted a physical show with guests at a dreamy location in Milan. Called La Vigna Di Leonardo, the show’s location is a rare vineyard in the city that was once owned by Leonardo da Vinci. The spring/summer 2021 collection presented was a perfect outdoor socializing closet with summer dresses full of layers and bucket hats. Call Me by Your Name, Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe, and John Singer Sargent’s Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood were the inspirations for this collection, as well as Serafini lockdown location in the countryside of Italy. “I was moving toward something very easy and simple: painting, gardening, enjoying the open air,” explained Lorenzo Serafini.
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Other Highlights Were…
Fendi hosted a physical show that was soft, feminine, and vulnerable; marking the last solo show of Silvia Venturini before Kim Jones start in the Italian label.
Salvatore Ferragamo hosted a show with a few guests and offered a VR experience of being in the first row for those who couldn’t attend the release of its clean lines and muted colours collection.
Alberta Ferretti hosted a physical show for her collection that mixed relax romanticism with soft seductiveness while offering a realistic wardrobe to fit women’s needs and empower their femininity.
Dolce & Gabbana presented a not-minimalistic-at-all collection for a limited number of guests, with a lot of high fashion patchwork of D&G signature prints.
Thanks for reading this week’s moderated and next Tuesday I will be back with more.
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