At the base of the decision to move the Pitti Immagine trade shows is the requirement to make system. The goal is indeed that of consolidating the Italian calendar of fashion presentations and valorizing the qualities and integration of the production chain. Therefore, Pitti Uomo and Pitti Bimbo will take place from 21 to 23 February, in synergy with the Milanese fashion week, scheduled for 21 February to 1 March in the phygital version.

According to the new DPCM signed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for the Coronavirus emergency, that extended the suspension of international fairs until 3 December, the board of directors of Pitti Immagine noticed that it was impossible to stage the salons dedicated to men’s wear, children’s wear and yarns makers in January. So the trade show has organized for February three extraordinary days of fairs, special events, installations, and live digital features, concentrated along the Fortezza da Basso-Stazione Leopolda axis.

“Following the latest Prime Ministerial order, we realized that the margin of time to organize the fairs starting from 12 January, the date set for Uomo, it was very short, we had also received a lot of requests from exhibitors and buyers who asked for more time to present the collections and organize their presence in Florence,” commented Pitti Immagine’s President Claudio Marenzi. “The fairs should be held in a useful period for the sales campaigns; the identity of each fair should be preserved and, at the same time, it should give a strong system signal concerning both the production-commercial chain, as well as the Italian calendar of fashion presentations. We were thus certain that we would also receive the strong approval of national institutions like MAECI and ICE (the Italian Foreign Trade Promotion and Internationalization Agency), which have guaranteed their significant support, as well as local institutions,” concluded Marenzi.

To integrate the physical fairs, the Pitti Connect digital platform has also been confirmed for this edition, continuing to support exhibitors on new business opportunities increasing their visibility. “We will be opening the Connect digital platform to exhibitors well in advance. We have been working very hard on this platform over the last few months in order to boost the collection of orders and expand the editorial coverage. We are organizing a big promotion of our online sales system that will reach top buyers all over the world,” said Raffaello Napoleone, chief executive officer of Pitti Immagine.
The events will take place with new and necessary safety measures, from entrance checks to the planning of visits to the stands, to a design of the layout furnishings that take into account social distancing and constant sanitization. “An undertaking to which we have totally committed ourselves,” added Napoleone.

To emphasize the uniqueness of the February edition was Agostino Poletto, General Manager of Pitti Immagine. “The true innovation is that the Fortezza will also be hosting an intense program of events and fashion shows and presentations produced by guests and by a selection of the exhibitors or dedicated to special projects of the three fairs. The Stazione Leopolda will experience the same contamination which, thanks to its dimensions and the arrangement of the areas, together with the venue’s vocation as a place for holding exhibitions and catwalk shows, could also be opened up to initiatives of a more commercial nature”.

uomo.pittimmagine.com

Anna Rita Russo@modemonline