Concerns over the fate of fashion executive Vittorio Missoni and prospects for the economy weighed on the opening of Milan’s menswear shows, where designers used all shades of gray for their austere 2013 autumn/winter collections.
The founder of menswear maker Corneliani kicked off the first show of the Milan fashion season on Saturday with a message for Missoni, whose plane disappeared off Venezuela a week ago.
“We want to show our solidarity to the Missoni family on the first day of the fashion week,” company founder Carlo Alberto Corneliani said over a loudspeaker before the event started.
A small twin-engine aircraft carrying Missoni, 58, his wife Maurizia Castiglioni, another couple and two Venezuelan crew went missing on Jan. 4 after taking off from the Caribbean island resort of Los Roques. The Missoni group decided to go ahead with its show yesterday, but the family was unlikely to attend.
Media reported on Saturday that the location where the plane disappeared may have been found, but it was not possible to get an immediate comment from Italy’s foreign ministry.
Italy’s luxury goods industry is set to continue to outperform other sectors this year, according to analysts, helped by the appetite of wealthy Asian shoppers.
However, prospects for the economy remain as gloomy as the cloudy skies under which hundreds of fashion critics and buyers rushed to watch the menswear proposals for next winter.
Orders of Italian menswear for this year’s spring/summer season have fallen 8 percent, Italy’s textile and fashion body Sistema Moda Italia (SMI) said. Over half of domestic menswear manufacturers polled by SMI said they saw no sign of improvement this year, while the remaining 44 percent said they were preparing for deterioration.
An austere elegance reigned on the catwalks on Saturday, where designers like Dolce & Gabbana and Ermenegildo Zegna worked a gray palette for their collections.
Europe is still the biggest market for Italian menswear, but sales fell 2.7 percent in France and up to 7 percent in Spain in the first nine months of last year, SMI said.
“I thought of men who keep their feet on the ground, are rigorous, love clean cuts and precious sartorial details,” designer Anna Zegna told reporters backstage at the show.
Traditional coats in lightweight and soft spazzolino, the alpaca fabric launched by Zegna’s Agnona brand in the 1970s, were worn over double-breasted suits.
Gray coats returned at glamorous Dolce & Gabbana, where Sicilian boys strutted the catwalk like professional models.
Coats found their natural home at British house Burberry, where creative head Christopher Bailey worked every possible material for his youthful collection.
The fashion houses streamed their shows online to entice a growing number of customers who shop on their smartphones.
Online Web sites and outlets are the only places in Italy where menswear sales have risen last year, according to SMI.
However, this growing divide between virtual and real stores is forcing houses to reinvent their shops to lure back customers.
“The digital world is a very important tool, but it doesn’t have to be idealized,” Burberry chief executive Angela Ahrendts told reporters at the show. “We are opening stores too,” she said.
The Milan shows end tomorrow.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS