"Man and Fashion" closed in Italy

Modern fashion requires a person to be well prepared
Last weekend, the XIV International Conference of leading representatives of the global fashion industry ended in Italy. Over the course of a week, more than two thousand participants from Europe, America, Asia and Africa discussed the global problems that they face every day. Columnists from popular fashion magazines, designers, analysts and owners of large boutiques addressed the audience with special reports. Among the honored guests of the conference were the masters of European fashion Gianfranco Ferre and Paul Smith, who made a real performance out of their speech. For the first time in the history of the conference, Russian businessmen were invited to participate in it, as well as the editor of l`Officiel magazine and a fashion columnist for Kommersant. NATALIA ORLOVA reports.

In inviting businessmen and the press to Italy, the organizers of the current conference were probably prepared for all sorts of surprises. For example, most guests will turn out to be too enterprising and, changing passes to each of the two halls (where different speakers spoke at the same time), will begin to move around different laboratories, trying not to miss the most interesting moments. It was not that difficult to guess in advance which speaker would attract the most audience. For example, so many people wanted to attend the speeches of representatives of Diesel, Nike and Gucci that representatives of American Express (the main coordinators of the conference) had to simply refuse many, citing insufficient number of places.
They talked mainly about the place of a person in the fashion industry, about the national characteristics of buyers, the new strategy of designers in the struggle for sales markets, universal computerization and the possibilities of the Internet, which literally absorbs clothes, accessories and perfumes in its network and is ready to become a powerful alternative to traditional networks of salons and boutiques . We discussed all sorts of funny moments. So, in his speech, which looked more like a well-rehearsed show, leading British designer Paul Smith clearly demonstrated the similarities and differences between his clients in France and Japan. “I like to joke,” Paul Smith admitted to the participants. “This is evidenced by the design of my windows (in the fashion world called 'Smith windows' - Kommersant). And if you have been to my stores, you will have noticed the paper bills, as if by chance dropped on the floor and pierced by an old nail. Often, when I’m in boutiques, I see a rather funny picture of passers-by stopping at these bills and pretending that they are absolutely not interested in the money, trying their best to tear these bills off the ground. They get tired of it and come into the boutique.”
In this simple way, according to the designer, you can attract even the most uninterested buyer to yourself and your products. Modern man is tired of traditionally boring mannequins, but he is ready to appreciate the imagination and sense of humor of a fashion designer who claims his increased attention. The master of Italian fashion, Gianfranco Ferre, also agreed with Smith’s position, noting that the worldview of his current clients is very different from the worldview of those whom he dressed in the past: “Today fashion requires a person to be focused and well prepared, as well as the ability, characteristic of youth, to change with it.” ".

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 96 dated May 30, 1998, p. 13