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Milan fashion for real
By CNN's Liz George
MILAN. Italy (CNN) -- The glitz, the glamour and another fashion week. This time it's the spring/summer collections in Italy's Milan -- and this is the one, they say, where business gets serious. Says Hilary Alexander, fashion editor of Britain's Daily Telegraph: "You find this group -- like Gucci which has Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Yves St. Laurent -- and then you'll have the Prada group with Helmut Laing and Jill Sanders. "And Milan is where all the threads are sewn together and always in one." Milan's streets are packed with designer shops and what makes Milan fashion week different is that it's pret-a-porter.. Ready to wear... Which means the clothes you see on the catwalk will end up stocking the shelves of real shops. And Italians love clothes -- in fact in Europe, they are the third biggest spenders on fashion. But, according to research agency Mintel, they like Germany, the UK, France and Spain have not increased that spending over the last five years. And the designers, like the rest of the fashion industry, are finding it tough during this economic downturn. This year in Milan, there are over 300 fashion houses -- either exhibiting or holding shows. For them fashion week is key, bringing in the all important buyers: Says Luigi Vaglietti, general manager, Lorenzo Riva: "Fashion week in Milan brings all the world buyers, and for us this week and month are very important." And the big names remain big crowd pullers. Gianfranco Ferre's Gff line played to a packed audience and at least at this show black is the new black.
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