MAKE TOMORROW BLOOM
21 TO 23 FEBRUARY AT FIERAMILANO RHO, LINEAPELLE OPENS ITS DOORS TO THE FASHION, LUXURY AND DESIGN INDUSTRY
Make Tomorrow Bloom. This is the slogan with which LINEAPELLE is presenting itself at the start of its 101st edition, scheduled to be held at Fieramilano Rho from 21 to 23 February and dedicated to the development of innovative, top-quality collections for the 2024 summer season of leathers, fabrics, synthetics, accessories and components necessary for the fashion, luxury and design supply chain.
THE NUMBERS
LINEAPELLE is the sector's most important business experience and, in its 101st edition, it will host 1,151 exhibitors from 42 countries (61.5% Italian, 38.5% foreign) occupying a total area of over 42,000 square metres: 541 tanneries, 396 accessories/components, 164 fabrics and synthetics, 50 companies from other sectors.
The degree of internationality of LINEAPELLE thus definitively returns to pre-pandemic levels, confirming the international leadership of a show that has experienced two significant international previews in recent weeks.
The first was in London on Tuesday, 24 January, at the Ham Yard Hotel, where 43 exhibitors participated in a stimulating and constructive day of creative and business networking.
The second was in New York, on Wednesday, 1 and Thursday, 2 February, at the Metropolitan Pavilion, where 109 exhibitors tested the economic condition of the US market, which proved to be solid and interesting, not least by virtue of an increase in admissions that brought LINEAPELLE NEW YORK back to pre-pandemic atmospheres.
THE JOINT
LINEAPELLE 101 arrives in an economic phase that retains the uncertainties and complexities, particularly evident in the second half of 2022. The questions due to the problematic situation in China are matched by the substantial solidity of the other markets in the Far East, which show significant interest in Italian-made materials and products. The European market does not show particular brilliance. At the same time, the United States, as witnessed by the outcome of LINEAPELLE NEW YORK, remains a fundamental destination for Italian leather, despite some indications pointing to the possibility of a slowdown. In general, as far as production is concerned, 2022 ended with declining volumes, and 2023 did not get off to a better start, but the feeling, however, is that from spring onwards, the slope could be reversed.
TRENDS
For the 2024 summer season, the LINEAPELLE Fashion Committee is launching the creative mood entitled Other People's Eyes - Stories of Transformation, based on pictorial suggestions, digital hybridisations generated by Artificial Intelligence and the centrality of the chromatic dimension, with colours that will be the real protagonists: vital, positive, almost therapeutic. The stylistic challenge will be to "appropriate the most advanced technologies and techniques for the benefit of man and within nature". Wide-ranging themes are of great necessity to reconstruct a vision of the future that will be declined by the samples and materials that also tell of the exhibitors' daily commitment to the development of increasingly circular and traceable products. All this, as usual, can be touched on in the three Trend Areas located in pavilions 9, 13 and 22; it can be explored in depth during the seminars scheduled at the Fashion Theatre (pavilion 13), it can be discovered in the Metaverse, where LINEAPELLE, since the last edition, has opened a permanent exhibition space.
EVENTS
On Tuesday 21, and Wednesday, 22 February, LINEAPELLE 101 will be the stage for the exclusive fashion shows of two up-and-coming designers who will present their collections for Autumn/Winter 2023/2024 at the fair.
And that's not all: on the occasion of LINEAPELLE 101, the Lineapelle Designers Edition will return to the Spazio Lineapelle in Milan (Piazza Tomasi di Lampedusa). During the week of 20 to 25 February, Lineapelle Designers Edition will offer fashion shows, presentations and projects highlighting the quality and unexceptionable excellence of Italian leather.
The Amici per la Pelle competition, organised by UNIC – Concerie Italiane, will also be back at the fair. Each edition involves over 1,000 middle school students from the Italian tanning districts. This time the students have been invited to use leather to interpret artistically the theme Leather in Our Life - New Uses of Leather in Everyday Life. The works created will be exhibited and voted on at the fair and online. At the same time, the award ceremony for the winning classes will take place at Fieramilano Rho on Thursday, 23 February, in the presence of all the students who took part in the initiative.
LINEAPELLE 101 will also host two in-depth seminars. On Wednesday 22, the spotlight will be on traceability, transparency and circularity in the leather supply chain. Organised by UNIC – Concerie Italiane, the meeting will host speeches by WWF World Wildlife Fund, Tapestry, SDA Bocconi, Cotance, ICEC and Al Invest Verde. On Tuesday 21, on the other hand, Cotance will present Leatech, a new training project coordinated by the University of Lleida (Spain) within the framework of the Erasmus programme that aims to create a joint master's degree in the tanning sector.
SYNERGIES
LINEAPELLE 101 will be held in partial concurrence with the Milan Women's Fashion shows (scheduled from 21 to 27 February); with Micam, Mipel and TheOne scheduled at Fieramilano to Rho (from 19 to 22 February); and HOMI Fashion&Jewels (from 17 to 20 February).
LINEAPELLE 101 will also host the new edition of Mipel Lab, an exhibition organised by Assopellettieri and reserved for 10 top Italian leather outsourcing companies.
Debuting at LINEAPELLE 101 is the United Nations programme The Ethical Fashion Initiative, which aims to bring together international development, creative industries and the fashion and lifestyle sector, offering services, products and development projects for sustainability.
Confirmed, finally, is the exhibition presence of the Conscious Planet - Save Soil movement, which sets itself on the urgent task of denouncing the global crisis caused by soil degradation and activating concrete political action to counter it.
