Brains at the Shows. Fabiana Giacomotti - Illustration by Anna Higgie
Some of our favourite style analysts tell us what they saw in the latest runway shows and presentations of women’s collections. Here is the contribution by journalist, writer and organiser, Fabiana Giacomotti. She has been envoy for “Il Mondo”, deputy director of “Amica”, and director of “MFFashion” and “Fashion Illustrated”. She currently writes for “Il Foglio”, and has a column in “Seven” and “Lettera43.it“. She teaches at the “Sapienza” University of Rome and has overseen several major Fashion and Costume exhibitions.
It’s a moment, a flash. Sometimes just a single season. You go through the backdrop behind the curtains, to the backstage, and you see the look on the face of a boy who, up until six months ago, welcomed you eagerly, seeking confirmation, the caress, an approval for his small collection, fifteen releases checked right up to the last moment, with love, patience and a voice choked with emotion in front of the jury. The awareness has already sunk in, the forced happiness hiding the strain that does not want to get noticed. He is no longer the naive young boy who flattered and pandered to you, telling you that he “designs for women like you”. He watches without seeing, he smiles and has already passed over. In those eyes, when you go backstage, you understand everything. A whole lifetime in six months. The anxiety of getting a good spot on the calendar. The anxiety of pleasing those who will back him. The anxiety of getting the minimum order quantity, below which no one will produce, no one will sell the garments, and no one will speak of him, because the credit of the début and the sponsorship of an institution like the Chamber of Fashion has limited time to plan advertising before the first important evening, the first “event”, the essential cliché of social and, therefore, economic achievement. And then, that smile fixed. In the Milan of fashion, which is once again trying to step up its game, which is raising the stakes of quality and cannot always maintain it on property - since not a day goes by without the announcement of a sale of shares to foreign funds and investors - the first successful collection is the the watershed, and the first prize is also the first real test. After that, nothing will ever be the same again, also and especially if in order to grow, in order to compete, in order to “do research”, you immediately need to look for a foreign investor, a financial supporter, as many have done, and almost everyone dreams of doing. Hoping to find one from France, the U.S., but China is fine too. The presence of potential foreign investors in the room is smugly whispered among the guests seated on the benches. Less than ten years ago, they were Italian entrepreneurs, Italian banks who invested in young foreign talents. And while you reflect, drawing up the list with slight bitterness, telling yourself that it these are unnecessarily chauvinistic thoughts, meaningless in a now global world, you realize that Italian fashion is going through a unusual time, which might be considered the season of the non-migratory brain drain. Paid from abroad to continue to produce excellence where excellence is found, in Italy. With the status of subjects in their own home.