Most Fashionable City
The cities considered the global “Big Four” fashion capitals of the 21st century are Milan, London, New York and Paris. The style looks different all over the world, although some cities are known for being particularly fashionable. Residents of London, England, for example, have a reputation for setting street style trends, while New York City sets the tone by being home to several fashion schools. A fashion capital is a city which has a significant influence on international fashion trends, and in which the design, production and retailing of fashion products, plus events such as fashion weeks, awards and trade fairs all generate significant economic output. Milan is not only the golden location of the fashion and design industries as well as high-tech research centres.
Usually, Milan was ranked as the most stylish city in the world. Italy is full of smart cities, and Milan is one of them. The city’s fashion week is world-renowned, making Milan appealing to designers, stylists, and modelling agencies. The city is home to classic fashion houses like Armani, Dolce Gabbana, and Versace, as well as Italian versions of magazines like “Vogue” and “Vanity Fair.” Milan is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,395,274. In contrast, its metropolitan city has a population of 3,259,835. Unadulterated sophistication defines Milan, a city with a rich history and fashion heritage. Milanese fashion is most known for quality textiles and fabrics.
According to M. D’Ovidio’s “Moda e manifattura a Milano, in Milano Produttiva” (Milan Chamber of Commerce/2014), the conception of fashion products by creative people is a diffused practice, made by a community of different players. The dimension of such a phenomenon is very impressive. The direct employment is made up of 37.500 employees distributed through 6.000 enterprises (the average dimension of the typical unit of production being 6 employees), but 1/5 of the total value added of the Milanese economy is directly or indirectly connected to the fashion industry.
The local constellation of fashion enterprises creates a wider district including Milan, Busto Arsizio, Como, Varese, Monza, Vigevano specialized in different products and production chains (from silk to shoes, from textile to fashion design). According to Perulli’s “Milan in the age of global contract,” the miracle is that, notwithstanding the overall globalization and delocalization trends, the different phases of conception, design and production are still reunited here: making the daily exchange of knowledge and the quick adjustments to demand variations still possible. The production is made in a range of 60 kilometres from Milan.
The peculiar nature of the fashion industry in Milan is to reunite what capitalism normally divides: conception and execution, big and small, design and production. The ecosystem of the fashion industry is composed of giants (stylists like Armani and Valentino, Prada and Dolce e Gabbana, Marras, Gucci and so on) and a myriad of artisans, art masters, modellers and tailors able to capture the always changing and contradictory demands of the fashion world.
The conception of fashion products by creative people is a diffused practice, made by a community of different players.
