MILAN — The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Italy’s Chamber of Fashion, said Monday the women’s runway shows will no longer be held at the Fashion Milano Center location, beginning in September.
“We are working with Milan’s administration to stage fashion shows around historic locations in the city,” said Mario Boselli, head of the Chamber. Boselli said the number of fashion brands showing at FMC halved in February, making the change a logical consequence. “The mood there was just not right anymore,” said Boselli, also pointing to high costs connected to that location.
Milan Fashion Week moved to FMC on Via Gattamelata four years ago, after 25 years at the city’s fairgrounds, located next to FMC.
Milan’s fashion counselor, Giovanni Terzi, said at a press conference to unveil the changes that the fashion industry accounts for 21 percent of the city’s gross domestic income and it was time for Milan to “do something for fashion.” Terzi and the Chamber is still finalizing the venues, but the central streets surrounding the city’s cathedral were identified as most likely, from the pedestrian street Via Dante, which runs from the medieval Castello Sforzesco to the Duomo, to the Piazza dei Mercanti, with the Palazzo della Ragione, which housed the “Extreme Beauty in Vogue” exhibition last year.
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Boselli also noted that shows will be scheduled throughout the day, while FMC only provided morning slots. He touted the city’s “glamorous locations,” and said, “apart from those designers who have their own palazzos or staple show locations, these are venues companies should really think about.”
Several spaces will allow designers to attract spectators from outside the industry.
Milan Fashion Week is slated to run Sept. 22 to 28 and Boselli said Gucci is expected to open the week and Giorgio Armani to close it. “I saw great collaboration between fashion houses, with one or two top designers willing to show each day,” said Boselli, referring to the longer calendar in September as a reaction to the truncated, four-day week in February.