MFGS 2022 - The era of Metadesign

«Fashiontainment». With this one word, American designer Tommy Hilfiger summarized, live from his home in California for the 21st Milano Fashion Global Summit (MFGS), the formula he thinks is winning for fashion in light of the web evolution. Tommy Hilfiger's future? «We will be very involved in the Metaverse. We love the video game world, but we are trying to further surprise our audience by thinking of big projects for 2023 and 2024. The next step will always be a surprise». This is how the Principal Designer for Pvh's brand, described the projects in the making, after a 2022 marked by a comeback on the official New York calendar with a show between physical and digital. His is one of the weighty international presences at the second day of the conference organized by Class Editori. «We need creativity coming from young people. For years we have taken economic dignity away from labor that needs to be restored. If we want to be manufacturers, we need to find better conditions related to working environments and wages». 

These are the words of Brunello Cucinelli, the company's executive chairman and creative director, which emerged from the panel on humanistic capitalism. «The Government has always believed in our supply chain, I ask it to be even more attentive to the conditions and wages of our young people coming to work, who can become the entrepreneurs of the future». And on the subject of innovation, the brand founder, who recently received an honorary doctorate in management, banking and commodity sciences from the faculty of economics at La Sapienza University in Rome, went on to explain: «Technology is a gift from creation, but it is right to exploit it the right hours. Being constantly connected steals our soul». Livio Proli, ceo of Missoni, then talked about the relationship between family companies and finance.

«Missoni is experiencing an effervescent moment. And our goal remains to reach 150 million euros in sales by 2025. We are registering excellent results both in terms of brand visibility and order intake, where we have achieved +47%», the manager, since May 2020 ceo of the brand participated by Fsi, which has controlled 41.2% of the company since 2018, explained. «In Italy, e-commerce today has an impressive volume. 3.5 million is the number of new consumers who made their first online purchase during the pandemic. In the country, the average annual per capita spending on e-commerce is between 1,200-1,300 euros. There is still a lot of room for growth»,  Francesco Passone, country manager of Klarna, explained, clarifying that the many kinds of goods that the user can buy on the Internet are also many: «They mainly concern travel, but also electronics and the fashion world which has a huge specific weight, from fast fashion to luxury brands». Luca Tonello, general manager of Dedagroup Stealth, talked about expansion: «We are growing from a technology standpoint, not only by increasing processes but also by acquiring specific solutions with one big goal, that of maintaining market specificity».

The group has in fact recently acquired some companies, including Social Factor, Bsamply, Zedonk and Berna, expanding and improving its services to stay updated with a market that is «dynamic, very self-referential, but with characteristics that change month by month, year by year, collection by collection».

After him, a longtime captain of Made in Italy took advantage of the summit to launch a news story. «Minerva hub embraces eight companies, but is about to add two more, which I will not name out of superstition. The idea is, from a Group standpoint, to reach about 500 million euros in supplies for luxury brands in the upcoming years with over twenty companies under our name», ceo Matteo Marzotto anticipated at the MFGS 2022. The entrepreneur has been at the helm of the Italian industrial reality of fashion companies specializing in finishes and materials for luxury accessories since last June, which to date generates a turnover of 180 million euros, a profitability over 20% with 710 employees, 65% of whom are under 45 years old and half of whom are women. On Metaverse and new technologies, Luca Colombo, country director for Italy at Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Reality Labs, intervened. During the day of the event called «Metadesign. The technology vision», the manager tells Metaverse fashion scenarios. «Fashion is already included in the Metaverse but with already existing wearable tools, such as Ray Ban by Luxottica, and the ones we will create, it will come even easier understanding the application of technologies to fashion», Colombo explained. «For us, Metaverse means living an experience in a physical environment, it is the evolution of social interaction», he added.

Then he continued: «Fashion produces wearable objects so the augmented reality will be more and more oriented towards wearable objects that can interact with our daily life. We aim at an augmented and mixed reality that is more and more present». Valentino and Fendi, according to the manager, are investing in technologies and innovations by creating filters or virtual experiences through the phone. The panel closed with Valentina Corbetta, country manager at Veepee: «The e-commerce world changed a lot. Over time there has been a great acceleration, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when, even on our storefront, a different consumer has arrived. We specifically have 4.5 million unique visitors, so we have to surprise them with more and more engaging methods». Also to be taken into consideration, then, is the new generation of consumers which, with their tastes and their preference for using infotainment platform, are becoming a game changer. «We are an e-commerce leader in flash sales, born in 2001 with over 66 million subscribers including 13 in Italy», she concluded. Day 3 starts today with an extensive focus on the supply chain and «slowbalization». (All rights reserved)