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Roundup: Milan men's fashion week comes to end amid new energy

Xinhua, January 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Milan men's fashion week running on Jan. 15-19 has come to an end after 39 shows of collections for the fall-winter 2016-2017 and 48 presentations.

Though still struggling with the economic crisis, the fashion industry appeared to be looking at the future positively.

Sistema Moda Italia (SMI), the trade organization for the textile-fashion industry, estimated that the revenue of the Italian textile-fashion sector, which counts around 50,000 companies and 400,000 workers, was 52.6 billion euros (56.82 billion U.S. dollars) last year, up 1.1 percent compared to 2014 and with 55 percent coming from outside Italy.

"I can say with great satisfaction that this fashion week was an extremely high-level one in terms of brands and creativity, from my point of view as a buyer who represents some 400 luxury shops in Italy," said Mario Dell'Oglio, president of the Italian Chamber of Fashion Buyers.

Especially in times of economic troubles, customers pay attention to prices, Dell'Oglio noted. "But when we are talking about collections with an outstanding design and quality content, we see how customers spare no expense, because what they buy is their object of desire," he highlighted.

Elisabetta Canali belongs to the third generation of the Canali family and has responsibility for the image of the over 80-year-old family-run company.

Canali said the brand was having a positive growth. "We plan to open new stores in key locations of China and the rest of Asia-Pacific area to strengthen our image there. China is our number one market in the Asia Pacific, which is our third market. In China we have around 80 mono-brand stores including 15 directly controlled," she said.

Looking abroad and at the online channel was also the development path chosen by Dirk Bikkembergs, whose runway closed the Milan fashion week.

Zeis Excelsa, a fashion group owner of international brands, sold a 51 percent stake of its brand Dirk Bikkembergs to Chinese group Guangzhou Canudilo Fashion & Accessories.

"We have a very positive relation with this group that is listed in Shenzhen and has a coverage at multiple levels, including the online, via high-end channels in China, a very important area for us," he said. Enditem