Having taken note of the Decree of the President of the Italian Council of Ministers (DPCM) to reduce COVID-19 transmission from physical fairs signed on 14 January 2021, valid from 16 January to 5 March 2021, the winter, ‘in-person’ edition of Pitti Immagine Filati 88 will be held in an exclusively digital format on the Pitti Connect platform. “The platform will remain online with current fair season content until the beginning of April, guaranteeing an in-depth exchange between national and international exhibitors, members of the trade, and communications operators,” Pitti said in a statement today.

‘In the last few weeks, the probability of being able to hold the fairs in a physical format had clearly decreased but we had decided to keep the option open until the suspension was officially confirmed, because we were aware of the strong desire of our exhibitors and buyers to physically meet in person, despite the many problems that this could entail,” said Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Immagine.

“This was not superficial optimism, nor a kind of stubbornness in the face of clear evidence, but rather a determination to leave no stone unturned and possibly also offering a useful message for the coming months. The advice given by trainers to volleyball players comes to mind: even when it seems almost certain that you have lost the set, score as many points as you can, keep standing, this will be a sign to your rivals that you will be giving them a battle again in the next set.”

“So,” Mr Napoleone said, “We will be playing the next physical set in the summer, but we want to continue to score points in the meantime. It is for this reason that, in this period, we have worked so hard on the digital dimension on which we are now concentrating all our efforts. For Pitti Uomo, we can already count on the participation of around 250 companies, all who will be accompanying us in the future. The live-streamed events which took place this week were a great success, combined with the many collections already uploaded on Pitti Connect.”

Pitti Connect