BFC responses to Pitti Immagine over clash

This week the British Fashion Council announced that the

dates for the second edition of London Collections: Men would run from January 7 to 9, overlapping the Florence menswear tradeshow Pitti Uomo by two days, which will run from January 8 to 11. The news sparked a strong reaction from the Italian company Pitti Immagine who claimed the BFC had “a distorted view of the competitive context of the top men’s fashion fairs”.

BFC chief executive officer Caroline Rush has responded in an official statement: “We have arrived at these dates following a great deal of feedback from buyers and press from domestic and international audiences and while this is not ideal we feel that this is the only solution for this coming season.

“It is essential that we ensure designers and brands taking part will have their sample collections back, following the closure of European factories; and that audiences will have returned from their Christmas break and are therefore free to travel to London.

“With these dates we hope that buyers and press will come to London, then Pitti, Milan and Paris, ensuring they experience the whole of the European menswear calendar.”

However, CEO of Pitti Immagine, Raffaello Napoleone, condemned the decision: “In what is such a delicate moment for half of the world’s economies, while fashion fair organisers are all working hard to draw up an international calendar that will increase the efficiency and coherence of the work carried out by buyers and journalists and, at the same time, minimise costs.

"It seems that the board of the BFC is taking none of this into account.”