Italy's foremost Menswear fair Pitti Uomo recorded a successful event

This season’s Pitti Immagine Uomo, the menswear fashion industry's prestigious trade fair held in Italy twice a year, has concluded its 85th edition in Florence five days ago, registering positive results, prompting the organisers to feel positive about the recovery of the industry. 

Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Immagine said they registered 30,000 visitors, of which 21,000 were trade buyers, a 4% increase over the fair held in January 2013. “Italian attendance was also up: we could not hope for more. This is extremely gratifying and we are filled with enthusiasm about the June 2014 fair”.  

Mr. Napoleone added: “Among both the vendors and those who staged special events, we found a desire to grow, to  strengthen their presence on existing markets and to conquer the new and emerging ones that sent many quality buyers to the fair. We also saw that there was considerable teamwork among the vendors and retailers, ready to meet the needs and desires – and problems - of the many and different consumers that make up the market”.

From the opening ceremony in Palazzo Vecchio all the way through the fashion events held around the city, Pitti Immagine Uomo 85 (Florence, 7-10 January 2014) was marked by an atmosphere brimming with energy.  

The exhibitors, representing more than eleven hundred brands showing their 2014/15 fall-winter collections at the Fortezza da Basso demonstrated that research and innovation were key for developing designs for the coming season.

Pitti Imagine reported that the non-Italian visitors came from 120 countries around the world.  The number of buyers from the USA – the fundamental market in terms of prestige and as the global benchmark - rose by 10%. 

The number of visitors from Asia came in force.  For example, while Japan buyers were the largest group from their continent, buyers from South Korea – the new and promising frontier in Asia – went up by 5%. Excellent turnouts also recorded from Sweden, Holland, Eastern European markets, Canada, Australia and the Arab Emirates.   Others came from Central Asia, the entire Middle East, Oceania, South and Central America and Africa.

And here are the figures for the top 20 foreign markets that attended Pitti Uomo:Japan (833 buyers), Germany (749), Turkey (562), Great Britain (554), Spain (535), Holland (456), China (431), France (372), South Korea (323), Russia (290), Switzerland (280), United States (256), Belgium (231), Austria (175), Sweden (126), Greece (126), Portugal (116), Hong Kong (89), Denmark (79) and Norway (64).

Photos above supplied by Pitti Uomo.