From the first moment I ever attended a Pitti Uomo fashion show, I knew I had stepped into a brand new universe. It was a place where everything felt possible and groundbreaking new ideas lived side by side with our grand “Made in Italy” traditions. So, personally I’m not surprised that during these times of crisis, the inspiration and tools to move forward in fashion come from Pitti Immagine — the all-encompassing banner company that holds the Pitti Uomo fairs along with other wonderful events in Florence, throughout the year. If you can touch it, feel it, smell it, taste it and wear it, Pitti has got it.
In the last month, Pitti launched the Pitti Connect concept and website, an all-inclusive online tool, easy to navigate and filled to the max with inspiration. With Pitti Connect, buyers can deal directly with manufacturers through virtual showrooms, journalists can find snippets of news updated daily, creativity tips from designers and insight into the brands — 420 companies and counting as Raffaello Napoleone pointed out during a Zoom American press meet. On top of that menswear, children’s wear as well as yarn suppliers (all part of the Pitti family of events) can collectively showcase their latest catalogue to prospective clients — in a thoroughly secure digital manner.
Pitti Connect is a brand new way of doing business in fashion. For the brand new world we find ourselves navigating these days.
Back to the Zoom press meet-up which was so chock full of information and insight that truly, I won’t do it justice in just one piece. But here are a few highlights.
Kicking off the event, Pitti CEO Raffaello Napoleone pointed to a 2019 which was “extraordinary,” as far as fashion exports, “one of the best years ever,” he admitted. Of course, in March the situation changed, as Italy was one of the first countries to go into total lockdown due to the Coronavirus and figures “dropped all around.”
Lapo Cianchi, Pitti’s Director of Communication, then pointed out that inevitably “physical fairs are not possible” at this time and that anyway the industry has been dealing with what he called “an awkward season — where every part of the chain is late,” from production to delivery and of course, on the consumer side. We may be back out on the streets, but we’re more cautious in what we buy and why we purchase it. Yet despite this chain of lagging behind, one thing is happening much ahead of schedule and that is the launch of the Pitti Connect website, which Cianchi admitted “was originally scheduled for January of 2021.”
Next up, Andrea Secci, the newly appointed Head of Digital for Pitti, pointed out the features of this new website, which combines digital purchasing with marketing and branding. As Secci highlighted, its four main features are smart scouting, based on the online behavior of buyers; networking, through video calls connecting buyers, journalists and exhibitors; content, divided into three levels of permission which are up to the exhibitors to decide and grant; and finally data. As Cianchi pointed out, “if you want to get lost, get lost [browsing the Pitti Connect content] or be guided by Pitti and our curatorial approach.” Pitti Connect has the same freshness as the Pitti special events, and takes on an “editorial shape, like a web magazine,” Cianchi concluded.
The inspiring content of the site — which includes exquisitely curated short films by Olivier Saillard, as well as videos focusing on the life and work of some of the most beloved designers featured in past editions of Pitti Uomo — is the work of Francesca Tacconi, the Special Projects Supervisor at Pitti. Personally, her contribution had me at “hello,” with the easy scrolling that takes one through the “History of Pitti” with menswear greats like Raf Simons, but also the cool #PittiFriends #LittleChats for Pitti Bimbo and an upcoming Instagram series curated by perfume critic and author Chandler Burr for Pitti Fragranze.
Tacconi admitted she focused on “editorial content and sustainability,” which can provide “the answer to what is going on.” In fact, Tacconi continued “sustainable and style can sound like oxymorons,” and yet the short films put together by fashion historian Saillard, featuring style icons from past eras as told by current muses of the curator, with sketches by Gael Mamine, give us a roadmap to “the sustainable way to show fashion,” as Tacconi beautifully put it.
Cianchi chimed in that there will be “fresh content added every day” on Pitti Connect, which has been a constant source of creativity for me and further explained the idea of using the “Out of the Blue” tagline as well as the Wolfgang Tillmans vintage photo featured above as the image of the campaign for Pitti Uomo. This situation, this world crisis, “was unexpected, it came out of the blue” said Cianchi, “but we love a blue sky,” meaning that even out of a horrible situation, something beautiful can come. If Pitti Connect is the price we have to pay for this pandemic, I think we might all be OK after all.
And with the announcement that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have picked Florence for their “Renaissance & Rebirth” event, a three day experience starting on September 2nd, featuring their High-Quality Tailoring and Haute Couture events, it does feel like Pitti Connect and my beloved birth city of Firenze are bringing fashion back! Or rather, they are bringing it forward — to a brand new way of doing business and making people dream.