Buyers on the up at Pitti Uomo

Buyers on the up at the 77th edition of Pitti Uomo which closed its shutters in Florence on Friday. According to early estimates, that confirm the optimism with which Gaetano Marzotto, Chair of Pitti Immagine, had launched the show, they have reached 23300 in number, up from 22700 in January 2009, including over 7000 from abroad. “The crisis is over”, said Marzotto last Tuesday during the inaugural press conference. And, with these data to hand, it really does seem to be, despite 2009 having been a very difficult year. According to the provisional data collected by Sistema Moda Italia, for Pitti, 2009 should in fact close with a turnover contraction of 9.7 per cent for menswear, which will take the turnover for the sector below the € 9 bn achieved in previous years.

Returning to the data for the fair, which involved 765 companies sporting 936 brands, of which 305 foreign, Raffaello Napoleone, Managing Director of Pitti Immagine, says: “we already knew that the most important buyers would have arrived at Fortezza, but now this is also backed by the numbers, which is reassuring”. There was some defection among buyers from Germany, Japan and Great Britain. So Fortezza da Basso saw many Americans, Russians, French, Chinese, Spaniards, Turks, Danes, Koreans and Norwegians.

They were greeted by various novelties. Among these, a Central Pavilion reviewed by the Spanish born, but Milan based, designer Patricia Urquiola. “We had been thinking about Patricia Urquiola for a long time: we liked her work on ephemeral and shelter-like architecture and on recyclable materials, her sensibility to colour and to interlacing which brings her very close to themes from the world of fashion”, Agostino Poletto, Assistant Manager of Pitti Immagine told FashionUnited. Urquiola’s intervention cancelled out the coldness of the corridor effect and introduced a more natural atmosphere. The fitting out of Leopolda Station, which hosted the Corneliani parade, also had an impact. The models, dressed in clothes with prominent shoulders, large revers and fabrics that exploit new technologies, paraded through a wood made up of 280 tree trunks, before the intrigued eyes of thousands of guests. Another interesting performance was that of the Turkish designer Umit Benan, who presented the 2010-11 winter collection staging a banquet in a small room of the restaurant at Maria Novella Station.

As regards men’s fashion, the show removed any doubt: next winter will see puffer jackets and trench coats prevailing and suits will have well tapered lines.

But between artistic performances, trends, innovation and technology what really hit the buyers present? “I saw a product proposal selected rigorously by the companies, who brought collections with a very careful focus on their identity, a very high level of quality and a better quality-price ratio”, affirmed Tiziana Cardini, Fashion Director for Rinascente. For Georgia Pizzi, Italy Account Manager for Harvey Nichols Hong Kong, “the new design of the Central Pavilion gave the presentation of the product more breathing space: walking in the stands is more pleasant and allows you to immediately see the styles of the collections”. You can bet, therefore, than the June edition will bring more novelties like this. “The plan that we have begun will also continue in the next editions and will end up involving the Central Pavilion in its entirety. Just as people talk about concept stores for shops, we have inaugurated a concept fair, a working reflection on the new ways of representing fashion and of setting up fashion fairs”, revealed Poletto.

Photo 1: The Central Pavilion of Pitti Uomo
Photo 2: An image of the Corneliani show at Leopolda Station