Milan Fashion Week for the 2008 Fall/Winter Collections is being marred by brewing trouble, leaving leading Italian fashion designers outraged.
Milan Fashion Week has been branded a “circus without sense” by Dolce & Gabbana amid fears that it rapidly falling behind Paris and London as a vital destination on the haute couture circuit.
Long delays, chaotic organization and unseemly catfights led to this year’s edition of Italy’s most prestigious fashion showcase, which finishes today, being roundly attacked.
Due to fears that important fashion editors would leave Milan before the end of Fashion Week, an exorbitant number of runway shows were crammed into the first few days of the fashion event. In all, there were 103 catwalk shows — supposed to run over the course of a week plus some — featuring 95 different fashion designers and labels.
Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue, said she had requested Armani, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana to shift their shows so that she could return to America before Paris Fashion Week begins next Tuesday. As a result, a logjam of catwalk shows at the beginning of the week caused havoc.
The resulting fashion week scheduling created near-chaos and a very awkward calendar of events and fashion shows. Furthermore, the rescheduling request evoked criticism from designers such as Dolce & Gabbana, claiming that the prestige of Milan Fashion Week was being put into jeopardy and that the event may be “neglected in [the] future.”
Fellow Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani vocalized his concerns, claiming that Anna Wintour’s request showed her preference for French (and American) fashion designers to the detriment of Italian talent.
Source: Daily Telegraph
