The world’s
most important trade fair for men’s fashion, Pitti Immagine Uomo, will host a slew
of new features for its summer edition, highlighting ethical fashion and honouring
stylists from Africa, Europe and other regions.
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| MaXhosa by Laduma (photo: S. Deiner) |
Taking place
June 16 to 19 in Florence, Italy, the fair will present a special edition of
its Guest Nation Project, in which a particular area is designated for the
“rising stars” of fashion from various countries, said Raffaello Napoleone, CEO
of Piiti.
Speaking to
reporters in Paris, Napoleone said that Guest Nation will focus on African
designers in 2015, in its first collaboration with the Ethical Fashion
Initiative (EFI), a flagship programme of the International Trade Centre, which
itself is a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade
Organization.
The Ethical
Fashion Initiative links the world’s leading fashion talents to marginalised
artisans - the majority of them women - in East and West Africa, Haiti and the
West Bank.
Active since
2009, the Initiative enables artisans in low-income areas to connect with the
global fashion chain, according to Simone Cipriani, the director and founder of
the project. It also facilitates the development and production of high-quality,
ethical fashion items that are delivered to luxury brands in a professional
manner, he added.
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| Dent de Man (photo: J.D. Pryce) |
The EFI says
that its aim is equally to “enable Africa’s rising generation of fashion talent
to forge environmentally sound, sustainable and fulfilling creative collaborations
with local artisans”. Under its slogan, “not charity, just work” the Initiative
advocates for a fairer global fashion industry.
A special
event titled “Constellation Africa” will thus promote young and talented designers
from the continent at Pitti Uomo, and a runway show scheduled for June 18 will
feature four brands that give priority to manufacturing in their home countries
and are already known on the international market, said the fair’s organizers.
The brands
are Dent de Man, MaXhosa by Laduma, Orange Culture and Projecto Mental, all of
whom will present their men’s collections. The designers hail from Nigeria,
South Africa, Angola and the Ivory Coast.
“I believe
that Pitti Uomo is the best platform to showcase these innovative designers
from Africa, the continent which hosts the future of fashion and couture“, said
Cipriani.
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| Simone Cipriani (photo: McKenzie) |
Meanwhile, Napoleone
of Pitti said that the designers are four “real talents” who will do “something
new and very interesting” that “must be seen”.
Apart from
the African stylists, Pitti has named Moschino as the Menswear Guest Designer
for this edition. The Italian house, founded in 1983 by the late Franco
Moschino, will put on its first men’s runway show since American designer
Jeremy Scott took over as creative director in October 2013.
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| Design by Moschino |
The fair is
also putting on an exhibition titled Il Signor Nino, which celebrates the work
of 84-year-old Nino Cerruti, one of the leading figures in Italian men’s
fashion for almost 50 years. The show has been curated by Cerruti and fashion
journalist Angelo Flaccavento. It will take place at the Marino Marini Museum.
With this
season’s theme of “That’s Pitticolor”, the fair’s Fortezza da Basso venue will
be a site of installations, light plays and the first digital art projects,
said the organizers. There will be an “Open” section that goes beyond “gender
distinctions” and an “Unconventional” space to present “the most vibrant voices
in the area of luxury underground styles”, said Napoleone.
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| Raffaello Napoleone |
Some 1,150
brands will participate in the fair this year, and the organizers expect to
welcome a greater number of visitors than the 30,000 who
attended in 2014. - L. McKenzie &
J.M. De Clercq
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| Moschino |
