Milan Fashion Week is set to
kick off this month with Gucci's return to the runway.
Despite continued growth, however, the Italian fashion
industry is expecting a slowdown in revenue in the first quarter
of 2019.
The industry is looking at a possible drop from its 2.8%
increase last year to a 1% rise in the same period this year,
said Carlo Capasa, president of the National Chamber of Italian
Fashion, in a presentation of Milan Fashion Week, which will
take place February 19-25.
Capasa said the expected slowdown is due to international
factors such as Brexit and tariffs, which he said can have a
negative effect on a sector such as Italian fashion, which
counts highly on exports.
Capasa is confident, however, that numbers can improve if
these issues are resolved, since revenues in 2018 reached 90
billion euros, a 2.8% increase on 2017.
"We're still a system that represents 12% of the national
added value and employs 700,000 people," Capasa said.
"Milan fashion businesses alone invoice 28 billion euros per
year," he said, rejecting the idea that the industry is in a
crisis.
"We've grown every year by an average of 3%, if you call that
a crisis," he said.
This year's Milan Fashion Week will host 173 collections with
60 runway shows, 81 presentations, and 33 initiatives, including
young designers such as Marco Rambaldi and the return of the big
name Gucci.
Last year the fashion house, which is part of the French
group Kering, chose to show its spring/summer collection in
Paris in what it called a temporary transfer in honour of the
City of Lights.
Gucci, which made 6.2 billion euros in 2017, is now returning
to Milan in this year's fashion week with a co-ed show, Capasa
said.
"Gucci went to Paris as part of an overall project that was
part of a path by its creative director Alessandro Michele,"
Capasa said.
"Now it's back as promised and we are happy about it because
the power of Gucci is very important," he said.
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