Fashion to design the Milan of the future

«Fashion, with over 12,000 companies and almost 90,000 employees, is increasingly important for Milan. Thanks to the relationship between customers and brands, we want to build the city of tomorrow». Alessia Cappello, Milan’s Councilor for Economic Development and Labor Policies and Responsible for Trade, Fashion and Design, explained this to MFF in an exclusive interview. According to data from the Chamber of Commerce of Milan Monza Brianza Lodi, the industry recorded a slight decrease concerning fashion companies and an increase for design companies in the first months of 2022, with 88,000 people employed and a turnover recovering on pre-Covid-19 levels, which amounted to 19 billion euros annually. While waiting for June's fashion week, Cappello is outlining the next steps of a work carried out with Mayor Beppe Sala and the municipal council, which will support initiatives for urban redevelopment, employment and training along with the National Chamber for Italian Fashion (Cnmi). She is also evaluating what to do about the long-awaited fashion museum for Italy's capital of couture, which should be a facility that will bring Milan to match its counterparts London and Paris.

How much employment and turnover does fashion generate for Milan?

It is a crucial sector for the city with over 12,000 active businesses, more than 88,000 employees, and a turnover that is recovering on pre-Covid-19 levels, if not exceeding them. In addition, Milan Fashion Week is an event of international importance that for four weeks a year transforms the city into a world capital of fashion. This is not only important for the city’s exposure, but also for the income generated by all the other sectors, from restaurants to hotels, from catering to transportation.

What impact has Covid-19 had? Has the city fully recovered?

Yes, suffice it to consider the tourism figures. In April, there were 587,717 entries into the city's area, compared to the 594,269 entries recorded by the Police Headquarters for the same period in 2019. This is an extraordinary figure considering the two years we have experienced. Last February, I made a personal effort with Andrea Costa, Undersecretary of Health, and Carlo Capasa, President of Cnmi, to have the government also recognize the entries into Italy of buyers and workers from countries whose vaccines were not approved by the European Medicines Agency (Ema), and we succeeded.

Fashion companies have transformed some districts, I am thinking of Fondazione Prada and Scalo di Porta Romana, or the districts of Tortona or Isola with Versace. Is fashion changing the city’s look?

Absolutely, but much more can be done. We want to partner with brands to work together, to imagine new redevelopments of spaces where the manufacturing world, fashion brands and schools can encounter and collaborate, exchanging ideas and resources between public and private. Fashion has always been a visionary industry, setting the guidelines and formulas for the future, and the municipal council wants to collaborate in a shared path to transform the city.

Paris and London have great institutions. Will Milan have a large fashion museum?

This has been talked about for many years. There are many projects on the plate, with brands willing to generously open their archives and share the heritages held in their historic warehouses with the public. It would really be a great gift for the city but also for students from all over the world to be able to admire iconic garments of Italian brands and thus understand the evolution of the style and the manufacturing art developed in this city. We have many ideas in mind, let us see what we can do.

London is the capital of fashion education. Mayor Sala reminded MFF of the role of education as a growth path...

Education is a pillar of employment, but also of a city's economic development. With its seven universities, postgraduate higher education centers, master's degrees of excellence and international fashion and design schools, Milan is the Italian city where there is the largest number of young people acquiring specialized education. As far as fashion education is concerned, out of 19,000 fashion students nationwide, more than 9,000 are in schools in Milan (excluding university centers), an important number of young people studying the Made-in-Italy style, with a creativity that will forever have a strong Milanese imprint.

Showrooms are another treasure of Milan. What are you doing with them?

We are thinking of building a network that can connect the city's showrooms by creating opportunities for dialogue through a table that meets periodically. The showrooms are iconic spaces that draw a real map of Milanese fashion.

What are the municipal council's biggest fashion-related projects?

I am a great believer in the concept of networking, which is why last April I wanted the municipality to become the director of Milan's «Patto per il Lavoro» (Pact for Work), an alliance between the employer and trade union worlds to implement active policies capable of giving the right opportunities to young people, women and vulnerable people, so that everyone's talent is always valued. Particularly for the fashion sector, the goal is to create synergies among all the players in the supply chain, so as to build direct connections between the world of schools, manufacturing, showrooms and big brands, making sure that Milan is increasingly a collector not only for spaces but also for shared policies. (All rights reserved)