The calendar of Fashion Week this season is different from usual. With the exception of Bottega Veneta and Roberto Cavalli, no brand will show after 7 p.m. If for foreign media the decision seems strange, for the Italian press the news comes as a sigh of relief. Split in two, the Italian fashion system will have to choose whether to attend the most glamorous week or the most pop-focused one of the year; the international one, instead, will simply have had to book food and accommodation earlier than usual – in order to avoid the drama of last summer, when the Olympic Games in Paris blocked traffic and hotels at the same time as Couture Week. Yes, because this week, in addition to the ongoing Milan Cortina Winter Games, Northern Italy is hosting the Sanremo Festival, the holy week of Italian pop culture.
Between Sanremo and Milan, heavy traffic is forming of stylists, designers, project managers and influencers who, from Liguria to the Lombard capital, will have to manage two of the most important events of their careers. On one side, the Italian Song Festival, the patron of the country’s pop culture as well as a fabulous stage for talent seeking to establish itself on the creative scene; on the other, the Milan Fashion Week, seven days of spotlights focused on the new stars of Italian fashion. There is only one question: who will take care of the lights on Milan?