Valentino, Ralph Lauren Purple Label Back to Milan Men’s Fashion Week – WWD

MILAN – Milan Men’s Fashion Week will host a mix established and new brands at this year’s edition, running June 16 to 20.

According to the preliminary schedule unveiled here on Wednesday, the five-day fashion showcase will include 22 physical runway shows and five digital ones, as well as 30 presentations and 11 events.

As reported, Valentino will break away from the coed format of the past three years and stage a dedicated men’s fashion show dubbed Valentino The Narratives. Held on June 16 at 2 pm CET at the Università degli Studi di Milano Statale, the runway show will open Milan Fashion Week, and will be followed by those of Billionaire, 1017 Alyx 9SM and Dsquared2 later that day.

In between, Gucci will stage a presentation at the Spazio Maiocchi location, as it awaits to kick off its new course under the creative direction of Sabato De Sarno in September. The following day, the Florentine fashion house will hold an exhibition celebrating 70 years of its Horsebit loafer at the same location. Open to public upon registration, the exhibit will run through June 18.

The opening day of Milan Fashion Week will also mark the return of Ralph Lauren Purple Label, which is resuming its presentation format in the city.

The following day, Neil Barrett will also make a comeback to the runway at 3 p.m. CET, while Emporio Armani will close the day with a fashion show scheduled at 7 p.m. CET. On the presentation front, the day will be filled with new talents to watch, including Vogue Italia’s “Who Is On Next?” 2022 winner and 2023 LVMH Prize finalist Setchu, as well Italian indie brands Maison Laponte and Marcello Pipitone — Bonola.

Prada, Etro and JW Anderson are among the names on fashion operators’ agenda for June 18. That day, shows by 2023 LVMH Prize finalist and Milan darling Magliano, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy and 44 Label Group will alternate to presentations of the likes of Tod’s, Missoni and Canali. Marking its debut at Milan Fashion Week, Seoul-based fashion label Andersson Bell will stage a runway show, while German brand MCM and Italian sustainable label Skin of Nature will also hold presentations on June 18.

Giorgio Armani and Zegna will cap off the physical events of Milan Fashion Week with shows scheduled on June 19 at noon and 2 p.m. CET, respectively, while digital showcases by emerging names such as Carnet-Archive, Gams Note, Uni Form and Maragno were grouped on June 20 to facilitate a smoother passing of the baton to Paris for press, buyers and guests in town.

Decamping from Milan this season, Fendi will show its men’s spring 2024 show on June 15 during Pitti Uomo, taking guests outside Florence to Capannuccia, near Bagno a Ripoli, inside its newest plant inaugurated last October, as reported.

Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana’s chairmain Carlo Capasa gave his blessing to the move, as he reiterated the strong synergy between the Florentine men’s trade show and Milan Fashion Week. 

“The men’s fashion week starts in Florence and continues in Milan. We like the fact that this season Fendi is closing [Pitti Uomo] and kind of bridging the two events, leading to the shows here,” he said.

Overall, Capasa was in an upbeat mood as he expects the return in full force of buyers from China, and Asia in general, to both cities and is looking with confidence at the performance of the Italian fashion industry in 2023.

To be sure, Italian fashion is on track to surpass the 100-billion-euro threshold and reach a turnover of 103.5 billion euros this year, up 5.3 percent compared to 2022. Capasa said it tops previous estimates of about a 4 percent increase year-on-year.

Exports are also projected to grow 7.5 percent to 92.8 billion euros versus 86.3 billion euros registered last year.

“We were expecting a challenging 2023 but it didn’t turn out this way,” he said commenting on the 14.4 percent growth in revenues reported in the first two months of the year compared to the same period in 2022.

As reported earlier this month, according to figures provided by Confindustria Moda, exports specifically of men’s fashion jumped 24.7 percent in 2022 versus the year prior to 8.9 billion euros, with the U.S. skyrocketing 68.6 percent, and China increasing 8.6 percent, among the top-performing countries helping to take export volumes and values above pre-pandemic levels. 

In addition to the upcoming Milan Fashion Week, the city is gearing up also for the ninth edition of the Fashion Film Festival Milano, running from June 12 to 19. This year, the event founded by Constanza Etro and involving productions by more than 50 established fashion brands and 40 emerging ones will be enriched with two new activations. 

The first is a free streaming platform offering more than 270 fashion movies hailing from 60 countries, including works from Gucci, Prada, Miu Miu, Vivienne Westwood and Jacquemus, as well as Floria Sigismondi’s “The Dream of Dreamers” film for Ferrari. 

The second is FFFMilano’s debut in the metaverse, which will enable viewers to create their avatar, interact with others and visit a virtual auditorium to watch contents or discover the winners of the annual edition, which will be revealed during a ceremony scheduled on June 19. To this end, the new “Best Metaverse Fashion Film” acknowledgment will debut as part of the 16 categories to be awarded according to the decision of a jury comprising the likes of MSGM’s founder Massimo Giorgetti, Fornasetti’s artistic director Barnaba Fornasetti, top model Elisa Sednaoui and photographer Koto Bolofo, to name a few.

Chiara Ferragni and Elia Maramotti, brand director and member of the Max Mara fashion group sustainability committee, will sit as copresidents in the committee that will select the four winners of the third edition of the Camera Moda Fashion Trust grant.

Selected among 76 applicants, the 10 finalists were revealed earlier this week and include Cavia, Federico Cina, Florania, Francesco Murano, Marcello Pipitone, Marco Rambaldi, Niccolò Pasqualetti, Saman Loira, Setchu and Ssheena.

To be announced on May 25, the three winning brands will receive 40,000 euros each in funding, while a fourth winner will receive an additional amount of 15,000 euros by Max&Co. In addition to the financial support, a business mentoring and one-to-one tutoring will also be offered to the brands starting from June.