Milano Unica launches a revolution

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Feb 10, 2016

"Milano Unica is changing, because the fashion world has radically changed in the last few years." This was how Ercole Botto Poala, the Italian textile trade show's new president, announced a far-reaching new project on Tuesday 9th February, at the opening ceremony for the show's 22nd edition. As of the next September edition, the show will relocate and enjoy a complete makeover of its facilities.
 
As FashionMag reported last week, Milano Unica will leave the current city-centre location at FieraMilanocity, its home for ten years, moving to the new Milan exhibition hub in Rho, on the city's outskirts, a complex which already hosts other shows, such as the Micam footwear show, and which has also notably hosted the 2015 World Fair.

 
"We are relocating, because we need to expand and we are now running out of space here. At times of uncertainty and confusion, such as those we are going through now, it is necessary to take risks. We can afford to do so because Milano Unica has become a household name. We will however continue to organise parallel events in town," the textile show's president has explained.
 
Italy's benchmark textile show will adopt for the occasion a new floor plan, built around a central square, a reference to a typical Italian 'piazza'. "The idea is to become an event open to international excellence, in order to create synergies with Italian know-how," concluded Ercole Botto Poala, without giving further details.

The underlying project appears to be that of bringing together several events linked to the fashion world in one place, at the same time. In fact, the various fashion industry representatives who attended Milano Unica's opening conference have mentioned, alongside Milan mayor Giuliano Pisapia, the importance of team-work and of pooling all their energies together around a single, coherent project.
 
Milano Unica's 22nd edition is dedicated to fabrics and accessories collections for the Spring-Summer 2017 season. It will run until 11th February and has announced the presence of 371 exhibitors, 72 from outside Italy, as opposed to 361, 64 from abroad, a year earlier. Added to these, 40 Japanese companies and 13 Korean fabric manufacturers will be featured in the Japan and South Korean 'observatories'. Altogether, the show will host 424 exhibitors compared to 399 in February 2015 (+6%).