Florence as a fashion destination.

Recently, Florence was called by Vogue emerging 5th capital of fashion. It is not a surprise after numerous Pittis and Aprils “The Conde Nast International Luxury Conference”.

Pitti Uomo played a great role in the growth of fashion in Florence. Suzy Menkes, international editor of Vogue, claimed that Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Imagine, saw the ability of Florence to build a vast marketing business, when other capitals were mostly focused on shows on runways. Florence has also brought variety of designers from Africa and South Korea in the fast moving world of fashion.

However, for me Florence is primarily known as a place of hand made luxury. It is not only a birthplace of grand fashion houses as Emilio Pucci, Roberto Cavalli, Gucci, Ermano Scervino, and Salvatore Ferragamo, but it is the capital of fine leather goods. Well, this is explained by the existence of the Scuola del Cuoio, school for artisanal leather workers. Looking at powerful houses as Gucci, Fendi and Prada it is clear that most of profit comes directly from sales of accessories and shoes lines. Collaborating with the best artisans of Italy, they get the profit they want.

However, there is other side of the story. With the rising price of production in Italy and with development of countries wit cheap labour, more and more luxury houses are switching to factory production. Thus, it is making items less valuable and luxurious, despite the fact of paying large sum of money.

#fashion #Lifestyle #ENG