MILAN (AP) – The Italian fashion industry is deeply tied to its manufacturing base, with the textile mills that populate northern Italy key to helping designers realize their particular visions. This could explain the fashion world’s fascination with reclaiming disused industrial spaces to show off the finished product.
The third day of Milan Fashion Week for next spring and summer started with the fashion herd thronging past bemused Italian postal workers preparing the day’s deliveries as the well-heeled and freshly caffeinated crowd filled an old depot that became the backdrop for Diesel Black Gold’s Milan womenswear debut. The space even came with its own, complementary, industrial-sized “No Smoking” sign, which once safeguarded the daily mail but now protects high fashion.
Gucci has adopted a former rail depot nearby, while Giamba and No. 21 showed off their wares in an abandoned factory set in a middle-class neighborhood in a juxtaposition that demonstrates how integrated work and life in Italy are, despite stereotypes to the contrary.
Some highlights from Friday’s womenswear previews for fall/winter 2016/17:
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