Vanessa Friedman says "Does Milan matter?". Let's discuss!

[Benn98]

I still think that Milan matter but the problem with the english and american press is their snobbish attitude towards what is shown at Milan. There are a lot of great talents in Milan...A generation of designers lead by Marco De Vicenzo who are giving a fresh blood to the italian fashion scene. But a lot of editors only comes to Milan for the big shows from advertisers. Krizia, Iceberg and others well known fashion brands there have experienced some changes at their creative direction but no one seems to care...except for italian people and maybe some french magazines.

But yes, they should maybe ask themselves if NYFW and LFW matter?

For the record, same could be said about London and New York. And what's more, there are even less Pradas and Guccis in these cities to attract all the labelwhores which is probably why it's not on everyone's radar. But the creativity in London surpasses that of other capitals, especially Milan, time and time again. You don't look for creativity in Milan however much Miuccia would like to think people do. You look for fashion in a more commercial and populist sense. People really give London and NY very little credit. The streetwear trend, a movement sweeping the fashion industry for well over a decade now, was started here. And from the runway came the pop up shops, indie brands, magazine aesthetic. This is a tremendous contribution which even took over the luxury market and eventually trickled into Paris and Milan. And that, my dear, is how you determine relevance and contribution. Not just showing elaborate clothes on a walkway, but clothes that reflect the world we live in and that people can actually wear!

Milan, like Chanel, only thrives on reputation, not actual creative dominance. However much in tatters it may be, ships of fools will always buy into the past glory of that clique.

As for Jacquemus, time will tell how durable his line will be. There's always at any given time a new kid on the block. But they fizzle out. Years ago I'd have never imagined Sophia Kokosalaki or Rodarte to fizzle out, but they did.

 

[MulletProof]

Obviously there are bigger agendas involved in publishing pieces that quietly plant a seed for public opinion. She was probably "advi$ed" by the CFDA to pose such an interesting question. They're still not over the Spring/Summer 2013 battle and as NYFW officially becomes an obscene waste of time and money, they probably want to get something in the works, and what better way than pointing the finger at another city instead of working on their trainwreck..

 

[bc collector]

"And that, my dear, is how you determine relevance and contribution. Not just showing elaborate clothes on a walkway, but clothes that reflect the world we live in and that people can actually wear!
Milan, like Chanel, only thrives on reputation, not actual creative dominance. However much in tatters it may be, ships of fools will always buy into the past glory of that clique."

I wouldn't know where to start to disagree with this...If there is one merit that Milan has had over the years, it certainly is the fact of providing wearable clothes, at all levels and market segments...so much so that one could turn this merit into its opposite, accusing it (not wrongly, for me) of being too commercial and lacking in daring ideas. For buyers Milan is a crucial stop, for editors not so much, or not comparably to Paris.
As for NY and London, well...it takes a special sort of bias to consider NYFW more exciting than Milan; the very fact that the catwalk calendar stretches as long as the Paris' one, filled with every sort of irrelevant brands just for the sake of numbers, borders on plain ludicrous.
London is a different story: yes, it's been a hotbed of fresh talent for years but one could argue that this talent has very often been very raw, too raw to be under the spotlight straight out of a graduate show. For every McQueen or Kane, there are five or six designers who regularly end up off radar after a few seasons, the support of the British press not being enough to keep them afloat in the market, in the absence of a definite business strategy or a clear vision. I would also add a deep-rooted creative affiliation with London's club scene, which often, for non British, register as insular or just bonkers; and an inability to connect to the wider world (or at least, wider than the East End).

 

[Lola701]

For the record, same could be said about London and New York. And what's more, there are even less Pradas and Guccis in these cities to attract all the labelwhores which is probably why it's not on everyone's radar. But the creativity in London surpasses that of other capitals, especially Milan, time and time again. You don't look for creativity in Milan however much Miuccia would like to think people do. You look for fashion in a more commercial and populist sense. People really give London and NY very little credit. The streetwear trend, a movement sweeping the fashion industry for well over a decade now, was started here. And from the runway came the pop up shops, indie brands, magazine aesthetic. This is a tremendous contribution which even took over the luxury market and eventually trickled into Paris and Milan. And that, my dear, is how you determine relevance and contribution. Not just showing elaborate clothes on a walkway, but clothes that reflect the world we live in and that people can actually wear!

Milan, like Chanel, only thrives on reputation, not actual creative dominance. However much in tatters it may be, ships of fools will always buy into the past glory of that clique.

As for Jacquemus, time will tell how durable his line will be. There's always at any given time a new kid on the block. But they fizzle out. Years ago I'd have never imagined Sophia Kokosalaki or Rodarte to fizzle out, but they did.

i'm sorry but you can't say that. There are never been a snobbish attitude towards NYFW and even LFW. And for one obvious reason: the people who judge and consume fashion are english or american. They have the power with the press to engage discussion like this one and the power to break or raise profiles.

I think if we really wants to go in the "does MFW still matter" thing, we really have to concentrate on MFW in itself.

I think there's a generation gap and a really fear of youth in Italian fashion. The idea of modern italian fashion started in the 70's & 80's with the emergence of talents like Versace, Ferre, Armani an others and they helped Italian fashion to have this reputation of creativity and made Milan a strategic place from both a business and creative side. The 90's saw the rise of luxury goods companies as fashion forces and the problem is that they have been very comfortable with that.

In Paris, it has always been different. A lot of RTW brands from the 70's disappeared in the 80's and a lot of influencial great talents from the 80's didn't made through the 90's... From Montana to Mugler and even Alaia who didn't show nothing to the press for almost a decade. In Paris, we always had this appetite for newness, not youth.
In Italy they have a lot of reverence for their designers. Saint Laurent for example was seen as the most dated thing possible in the 90's. That's why he was jealous of Lacroix in the early 90's and also why he stopped doing the RTW and Elbaz was hired by Bergé.

We have this way to force or make feel to a designer that his time has passed and that he should move away. Mugler and Gaultier were at some point the best-seller rtw designers in the country but one day, everything was gone.

In Italy they don't let enough space to their new talents. But on the other hand, the american and english press doesn't care about those talents...In fair fashion, they care about their own. The majority of London designers don't have any identity. They have that creativity really raw and "straight off school ready to attack" but they have the support of the press. As you said, the majority of magazines comes from there.

In France, we have Vogue, Elle and Numero. Numero being niche, Elle being mainstream and VP is really the only arbiter of taste here. In England, i would say that Vogue is the least influencial. Having the EIC of Dazed at your show means more than anything. In Italy they don't have that because the magazine is like held in hostage by big brands and ego wars: If Dolce & Gabbana are not happy that Armani got the cover, they will ban the entire magazine...etc.

They have a lot of creative talents in Italy but they don't have any support...Even a vocal support (I don't count ADR wearing your clothes at fashion shows as support). We saw that here in Paris when just a mention of Haider Ackermann from Karl raised his profile and suddenly became the talk and the interest of the world.
Dolce & Gabbana will never be vocal supporters of any designer. Marco de Vicenzo got a little bit of attention thanks to the Fendi connection but that's it.

Milan has still a lot to do to reguvenate itself but i find it too easy to almost write an essay to question their relevancy when you can change be instrumental in changing things (i'm talking about Friedman).