There are opportunities for Italian men's fashion, 2011 is starting to close with an increase in turnover of 3,4% to 8,4 billion euros, according to the preliminary balance drawn up by the Smi Study Centre, the federation of the Italian textile and fashion system. A not hyperbolic but extraordinary growth if compared with the data of the previous two years: -0,5% in 2010 and -11,2% in 2009, and with the economic crisis that exploded in the second half of the year in many international markets. In this context, the negative aspect is given by the fact that Italian production registers a "serious deterioration, which should lead to a drop of 8,9%" reveals the Centro studi Smi.
All sectors of men's fashion, with the exception of ties, and with particular emphasis on outerwear (+4,7%) therefore emerge from at least three years of difficulty and leave room for a certain optimism.
But be careful. atinauguration of Pitti Uomo (held in Florence from 10 to 13 January), the most important global event in the sector, the president of Smi, Michele Tronconi he sounded a clear alarm: “It is true that there are perspectives to be grasped, but now we need to move from medicine to tonics: companies need not rainy aid but lower costs. Starting with energy, which we pay more expensive than our competitors, and with IRAP. We must have the courage – Tronconi underlined – to say that Irap is a wrong tax”. Therefore intervening on the costs linked to production factors, not so much labor as energy, is essential, but there are other factors that are jeopardizing the very survival of many businesses in the coming months. First of all the problem of credit, and several entrepreneurs present at Pitti agree on this. "Today - explains Tronconi - the banks are not able to play their role, to act as an "elastic" to the system".
So there is a severe liquidity problem, aggravated by the unsustainable delays in payments by the State. Not only. In the United States, sales in the fashion sector went well in December, but at the expense of corporate margins. What does it mean? “That in America, in order to remain on the market and to trigger a driving force for recovery, companies are willing to lose. And what do we do? – asks Tronconi – We penalize loss-making companies too much. It is right to fight tax evasion, but greater flexibility is needed, one cannot penalize those who try to get back on top through low margins”.
So now we need to think about growing up. “A perspective that can no longer be postponed” claims the mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi. And he adds: "We need to understand how the country takes the side of those who work and those who produce, we need to have the courage to face the knots of development".
But the development that cannot fail to take place on international markets: "The situation in Italy and in Europe is still difficult", he recalled Gaetano Marzotto, president of Pitti Immagine (the company that organizes the Florentine fairs). "For this reason it is important that the country launches a structure capable of facilitating the presence of small and medium-sized Italian companies on international markets". For his part, Pitti, which Renzi has defined as “a catapult of hope for everyone” is proving to be increasingly pervasive abroad. In this 81st edition, out of 1.073 brands present, 411 come from abroad; in the previous winter edition there were 23.100 buyers and of these more than a third (7.700) were foreigners.
