Press Kit March 2015
Interest in the leather days (February 25-27, Milan) is running high. There are many more accredited buyers, stylists and visitors (from at least 115 countries) than in the past.
LINEAPELLE, with its spring-summer samples for the coming season, will be held during Milan Fashion Week and be accompanied by the Simac - Tanning Tech show for the footwear, leather goods and tanning industry. On an area of more than 42,000 square meters, net, 41 nations will be exhibiting hides, accessories, components, fabrics and synthetics, models and chemicals. Tanneries will occupy a good 56% of the area, with the Italian preponderant. Fashion will therefore play a leading role. How? Designers' choices confirm a preference for clean, smooth material, essential but elegant, potentially perfect: this is the high range. Taste, however, adds the alternative, recent and bold, of the used, the worn, the deliberately aged. These articles will look definitely modern and innovative, aimed at playing down the formal and valorizing the casual. Accessories and apparel will seesaw between two opposites: on the one hand with quality suited to a designer product, too, on the other items that can be customized and are therefore easy-going, expressions of a contemporary style based on the quotidian and thus on the normal.
LINEAPELLE is sponsoring the Italian Fashion Council's “Next Generation, Under 30” fashion show featuring young designers' leather garments, to be held the evening of February 24 at Teatro Vetra, in the context of Milan Fashion Week. The Council (Camera Nazionale della Moda) will also make the Donzelli Room at Palazzo dei Giureconsulti available for all six days and here LINEAPELLE will reproduce its Fashion Studio - a twice-yearly collection for the past thirty years of new ornaments and materials - for designers and observers. An exhibit titled "Leather, an Italian History" will be inaugurated on February 25 at 7 pm with a cocktail for the heads of the Fashion Council and LINEAPELLE. At the show itself the halls will be filled with a host of articles designed to be eco-friendly, from the metal-free to the water-treated, but expected above all is a quantum leap from past performance due to international demand needing more than ever to stimulate consumers with articles having real intrinsic (instead of merely stated) value. There will also be a clear leap in technology offered by the Simac - Tanning Tech event being held at the same time, where the ecological priority will be accompanied by great advancements in refining and lightening the weight of tanned surfaces.
In brief, a complex of companies (1086 of them) in full ferment, with revenue of $US 15 billion, average per capita sales of $US 13 million and at least 200 concerns in the $US 35 to 400 million range. The 524 tanneries, Italian and foreign, have revenue of $US 8.6 billion; the accessory and components makers nearly $US 4 billion, and the fabrics and synthetics companies around $US 1.7 billion.
Since these are leading producers they practice (the tanneries in particular) the highest levels of environmental and social responsibility, transparency in supply traceability, application of ISO standards (with relative certifications), energy-savings and guarantee of origin (much to the annoyance of manufacturers who sell consumer goods without declaring the provenance of the hides with which their products are made). A conference on sustainability, addressed to the brands, will be held on February 27 (Epsilon Room). An acknowledged attraction of the event is the beauty, functionality and attractiveness of the stands, which on the one hand appeal greatly to buyers and visitors and on the other spur competition between exhibitors. This edition will see a return to awarding the stands with the most inviting decor.
Finally, it's obvious that the Made in Italy starring at LINEAPELLE is concerned with the future. Which explains that playful and enthusiastic competition organized for years among the middle school kids in the country's industrial districts called "Amici per la pelle". On February 27 there will be 1000 students arriving from various regions to attend the award ceremony in the Auditorium for the class best liked by the panel judging the works inspired by "Pop Art Tan".
