MILAN — After success last September, the Italian textile industry is hoping it can pull off an even better Milano Unica show the second time around.
Newcomer Prato Expo will add some muscle to Unica’s lineup of Ideabiella, Ideacomo, Moda Prima and Shirt Avenue, which are to showcase spring-summer 2007 fabrics at the new Milan fairgrounds in Rho-Pero, from Feb. 14-17.
The show’s sponsors said the change in scenery will be temporary, as the fair hopes to return to Milan city’s fairgrounds for this September’s edition. Organizers anticipate that the event will draw about 30,000 visitors and more than 700 exhibitors, compared with 20,897 visitors and 514 exhibitors at last year’s debut.
Most industry executives were encouraged by the buzz surrounding Unica despite an exceptionally slow start to the year.
“January has never been a busy month, but it’s not been particularly good this year,” said Riccardo Marini, director of Prato-based mill Marini e Cicconi and head of Prato Expo. “We are basically waiting around to see what this year brings and just hope the positivism that’s surrounding fashion will find its way here.”
Massimo Martinelli, sales manager at Como-based Canepa Tessitura Serica, said, “The lack of orders we have done in January is certainly notable, but we are expecting Unica to give us a lift.”
Sergio Perotto, chief executive officer of Lanificio di Quarona, located near Biella, said, “I’ve got to say our fall-winter orders are going quite badly. I’ve heard it’s because companies are late. I’m worried, but I am holding out hope for the orders for spring-summer 2007.”
Also working around the clock to finish off its spring-summer 2007 collection is Prato-based Ultra. Stefano Rigotti, co-ceo of the seven-year-old mill, said January has been an intense month for the company, having to prepare fabrics a week earlier than usual and receiving few orders for the fall and winter season.
“This new fair format is really keeping us positive,” Rigotti said. “The market is modifying itself and everyone is buying fabrics closer to the season, which is worrying, but we’re optimistic about 2006.”
He said last year’s success saw Ultra’s sales rise 20 percent to 20 million euros, or $24 million, an increase he doesn’t expect the company to achieve this year. Ultra will present a line of cotton, linen, hemp and silk fabrics that have ultrawashed and clean color effects in light gray, pink, green and white. The mill has also inserted viscose silk and viscose linen blends with a soft, fluid hand and luminescent look. Ultra’s textiles are given movement through multiweaving.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
Some mills are profiting from the market’s tardiness. Silk manufacturer Zibetti e Orsini received many last-minute orders in early January from designers who had sourced fabrics from India and China that didn’t arrive in time.
“This is positive for us,” said president Giuseppe Orsini. “We can deliver their silks in short lead times and at the same time recuperate some of the business we’ve lost.”
Orsini said the company will be presenting a small part of its spring-summer collection next week because of Unica’s early dates, with the full collection ready for Premiere Vision in Paris on Feb. 21-24.
“Everything’s been pushed forward, even Première Vision is earlier, which is ridiculous when you consider clients are getting later and later,” Orsini said.
Francesca Crespi, who runs Crespi 1797, is one mill executive not worried about the sluggish start to the year.
“We’re suffering, but I see some big interest for pre-collections and that’s inspiring,” Crespi said.
She added that her mill had produced an amplified spring-summer 2007 collection to respond to renewed interest. Natural-fiber-based fabrics dominate the collection, including a new line of printed silks and pure and mixed silk hemps, linens and bamboo. The silk-hemp fabrics have extra-heavy weights combined with a light hand in golden beige tones. Crespi 1797 also developed a finishing technique using pumice stones and soap for aging color on hemp and linen, making them feel like soft, overwashed sheets.
Fashion’s new fixation for sophistication, using fabrics made from wool, silk, linen and hemp, have many questioning why Italy’s textile industry hasn’t managed to lift itself up out of a slump.
“I believe it’s because we are not producing these classic fabrics differently enough,” Perotto said. “Technical fabrics are supposed to be démodé, but clients still want really beautiful cottons that have special treatments.”
Lanificio di Quarona will show a line of fabric woven from fibers such as hemp, cotton and wool. The mill has developed two new finishing techniques, one in the coloring process of hemp, and a laser to add age to cotton, linen, wool and hemp. Colors are saturated oranges, reds, yellows, blacks and whites, and jacquards are used in micro proportions to give fabric movement.
Natural-based fibers also dominate the collections of Marini e Cicconi, Ospiti del Mondo and Risposte di Moda, which are made up of printed linens, silk and cotton blends, as well as waterproof hemp and cotton mixes.
Fantasy-heavy silks will be part of Zibetti e Orsini’s offering, including embroidered and printed large florals, small geometrics and Kandinsky-inspired graphics. Overprints on embroidered striped fabrics give opaque, glossy effects in white, blue and black.