Word: milan
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Pass the smelling salts: Valentino has deserted Italy for France. And that's not all. Romeo Gigli will take his pseudo-cerebral fashions out of Milan and plunk them down in the middle of the Paris runways. Desertion! Infamy! Tribal politics! Frets Beppe Modenese, program organizer of the just concluded Milan fashion week: "Both Valentino and Gigli have done big damage to the Italian fashion image...
...have their clothes, but then that is a matter of taste. By choosing to absent themselves from their home turf, Valentino and Gigli have sent the kind % of political signal that is beyond debate: Paris is fashion central, and Milan is just a big backyard. This is not news to the French, of course, who responded to the story of the traveling Italians with the kind of equanimity that barely skirts smugness. "Paris is still No. 1 in fashion," says Jacques Mouclier, president of the Chambre Syndicale, which sponsors the twice-yearly ready-to-wear fashion shows held...
...million), and has for some time been trying to seem like an internationalist. Valentino's ready-to-wear has been on view in Paris for the past 14 years without attracting a commotion. Gigli is looking for an imprimatur, separating himself from the excellent elegances of Milan in favor of the more experimental company in Paris. The intrepid Japanese designers show their stuff in Paris; so do the haut trendies like Jean-Paul Gaultier and Claude Montana. The company is faster there than in Milan, where Giorgio Armani, Italy's premier talent, casts a very long shadow indeed. "Presumptuous...
...Milan has been bucking Paris and all its traditions for over a decade, but the City of Light still holds a clear lead. Milan staked its claim in a time of flux, when the fashion establishment, still shell-shocked by the '60s, was not quite so restrictive. Italy came on with a rush of fresh talent: dazzling designers (like the Missonis), some fine hands (like Gianfranco Ferre) and some naughty boys (like Gianni Versace). But, in Armani, it produced just a | single world beater. Paris, on the other hand, can still offer a wider spectrum: sumptuous Saint Laurent, engaging Lagerfeld...
There was also some suggestion around the Milan shows last week that Gigli had left in a bit of a huff, having lost a wrangle over a choice scheduling spot to Ferre, whose revenues ($390 million in 1988) currently carry a good deal more clout than Gigli's (under $10 million). "One day I just woke up and thought I'd like to show in Paris," shrugs Gigli, perhaps forgetting that Paris, for other Italian designers (like Simonetta), turned into a nightmare that left them disenfranchised, with no singular creative identity. "I shouldn't yet take all this for more...