The National Chamber of Italian Fashion has decided to move on for real. This time the big names show their faces and even open the purse strings for something that does not strictly concern their company. The Italian fashion system, which has Milan as its center of gravity, was in danger of losing its world leadership and, after years of internal controversy and attacks from abroad, words were no longer enough. It is useless to continue complaining about an unattractive and welcoming city, too short and concentrated calendars, little room for new talent, general inattention on the part of politics. The big fashion companies have finally decided to take on the problem, entering directly into the bodies of the CNMI and paying membership fees of up to 250 thousand euros (previously they were a maximum of 20 thousand euros). The new budget (4,7 million euros) is still far from the 8 pounds of the analogous British association that organizes the London fashion shows, but they may be enough to seriously start a relaunch of Italian events, bearing in mind that there are also sponsor and the contribution (500 thousand euros) of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan.
Also making the difference with the past is, since yesterday, a weighty presidency, with four vice presidents, Patrizio Bertelli vicar, Diego Della Valle (new member of the CNMI), Angela Missoni, Gildo Zegna, and two managing directors, Giovanna Gentile Ferragamo and Stefano Sassi (ad Valentino). In addition to them, the new board, elected on 17 April, includes the reconfirmed president Mario Boselli, then Lavinia Biagiotti Cigna, Carlo Capasa (Costume National), Patrizio di Marco (Gucci), Jacopo Etro, Massimo Ferretti (Aeffe) , Marialuisa Gavazzeni Trussardi, Sergio Loro Piana, Luigi Maramotti (Max Mara), Renzo Rosso, Carla Sozzani (10 Corso Como), Silvia Venturini Fendi. Only Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana are missing: so far they have entered the fashion show calendar even if they were not registered with the CNMI, but now they will have to overcome this ambiguity otherwise, from September, they will be cut off. Especially since even the brands belonging to large French groups, such as Gucci of PPR, are registered with the CNMI and so is the maison Valentino, which has been showing in Paris for 40 years but is committed to organizing major events in Milan during the of fashion.
Why this new fervour? “We are all guilty, stylists and entrepreneurs – said Bertelli – of not having seized the opportunities of the 90s in the right way, thinking that the success of Milan could continue on its own. The whole system must now make a mea culpa'', before it's too late and the other fashion capitals crush us. For the calendar of Milan fashion shows, a thorny problem that has always been, there will be a special commission but it has already been decided that Milan will not adapt to the programs of other cities: this means that the Milan fashion week, for women's fashion, will certainly be six days, without giving in to pressure from the Americans who would like to reduce the Italian event to a long weekend. ''Whether or not the director of Vogue USA, Anna Wintour, wants to come to Milan from day one is her problem, it's not the Chamber of Fashion that has to adapt but it's Mrs. Wintour that has to adapt," he said without Bertelli's pretenses. The deputy vice-president added: ”we will ensure that the big names are well distributed from the first to the last day and that young talents are not all put to the end and therefore skipped over by the press who leave Milan to rush to Paris. And then we would like the calendar to remain more or less the same for at least four seasons ”.
The lowest point for Milan, which Boselli today called "the indecent moment", was experienced about three years ago, since then the awareness of having to somehow relaunch the Italian fashion organization has grown. Because the attack on the primacy of Made in Italy also takes place on this level. And nobody thinks, however, of being able to go and ask for anything, especially financially, from local or national politics: "ministers these days have other things to think about", even if the fashion sector is holding up and, depending on the perimeter of calculation, directly employs from 560 to 650 thousand people, plus a vast satellite industry which – it has been said – perhaps exceeds the engineering sector. In short, fashion rolls up its sleeves and tries to go it alone (as it has done by expanding abroad: "our embassies - said Bertelli - have never engaged in commercial policy").
Now, therefore, all the company heads have undertaken to find a space for a direct commitment in the 8 commissions, the one that will have to find a managing director for the new managerial version of the CNMI, the one that will draw up the new statute, the one that will dedicate itself to the calendars of fashion shows, the commissions that have the task of dialoguing with the various protagonists of the fashion system and with the textile districts, the one for Greater Milan that will invent events and initiatives also in view of the Expo, then the commission that will work on the new agreement for retail signed with China.
