British Fashion Council links up with Camera della Moda in Milan menswear season

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Dec 12, 2019

The British Fashion Council has linked up with the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana to bring a team of burgeoning young British talent to the next Milan menswear season in January.
 
As part of the UK activation, the BFC will bring its London Show Rooms to Milan for the first time, staging this key display of hip new British talent at Spazio Savona 56, smack in the middle of the key fashion show quarter of Milan, where major league house like Armani, Fendi and Zegna stage their runway shows.

The main element is that London Show Rooms will host an art installation designed by The Mill and produced by YouConcept, bringing the story of London Fashion Week Men to new audiences.  In a novel move, the Camera and BFC will jointly select a group of designers, both British and Italian, who share a special affiliation with London. They also plan an evening cocktail for Italian fashion manufacturers and textile companies.

A spokesman for the BFC confirmed that the organization will also continue to stage London Show Rooms in Paris, as it has done since 2008.

The joint move is a refreshing display of Anglo-Italian unity, which entered into considerable turbulence a half decade ago with the launch of the stand-alone London menswear season, whose initial dates overlapped with Pitti, the giant men's fashion tarde show in Florence.
 
“ We are very pleased about this year’s collaboration with the BFC. The collaboration between both institutions is a precious opportunity for both of us to establish a bridge between our cultures and to create a lasting relationship that will surely be enriching for all parties involved. This project will give CNMI the opportunity to expand our borders and to make Milan’s Men Fashion Week even more international. Having the chance to host international-becoming stylists in Milan is an honor for us and we are happy to prove we are up to this task,” said Camera CEO Carlo Capasa.
 
As part of the amiable British invasion of Italy, one of London’s hottest menswear labels, A-Cold-Wall will stage its next collection in the Palazzo del Ghiaccio, a beautiful Liberty Style building dating from 1923 which was once the largest covered ice skating rink in Europe. A-Cold-Wall is scheduled to show at 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan 13. The Milan menswear season lasts for five days from Jan. 10 to 14. LFWM is a three-day affair from Jan. 4 to 6.
 
“With the show dates being early in January this season, we’ve decided to celebrate LFWM in further international territories with a significant partnership with Milan, working across cities in collaboration with Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. This partnership presents an amazing opportunity to champion British businesses and give exposure to the brilliant talent that London has to offer but we encourage you all to join us in London on 4th January,” said BFC Menswear Chair and GQ UK Editor-in-Chief Dylan Jones.
 
The two organizations – respectively, the governing bodies of the Milan and London fashion weeks – underlined in their communiqué that this project, funded by the Italian Trade Agency, and conceived by Stefano Martinetto, chief executive and co-founder of fashion business accelerator, Tomorrow.
 
“Martinetto brokered the deal between the BFC and CNMI, bringing the two parties together as a show of unity,” said the release, in a pre-Brexit display of unity by two European players.