The Bologna Fashion Festival is born

Bologna teams up in fashion and launches its first fashion festival. It will start in September 2024 (12-14) and will involve institutions, trade associations and local businesses. Directed by Centegross, the event turns the spotlight on the local fashion supply chain, too often forgotten or underestimated, to bring the Emilian capital back among the capitals of international fashion.

“When we say Fashion, we immediately think of Milan and Florence. But in Emilia Romagna the sector employs 87 thousand workers out of the 500 thousand active in Italy. It’s a national record. Furthermore, fashion exports are the third largest item in the regional budget with a value of 7 billion euros”, recalls Piero Scandellari, president of Centergross.

The fast fashion center on the outskirts of the city (3.5 billion in turnover of which 50% in exports) is among the leading promoters of the initiative, which is warming up its engines in view of its first edition with a ‘ call of proposal’. Until July 10th, local actors will be able to apply to participate in the event. A table will meet to select the best projects, which must be self-financed and centered on Made in Italy and beauty.

The Bff program is still under construction, but some key moments are already scheduled, such as the opening conference on September 12 with the intervention of the Ministry of Made in Italy. This will be followed by the debut fashion show open to the public and whose location is still top secret. The first day will close with an after party to inaugurate the three days. On September 13, instead, a talk on artificial intelligence is scheduled with the support of the Ministry of Innovation. Then it will be the turn of the White Night with the shops in the center that will stay open until late.

“The Bologna Fashion Festival will be a moment of relaunch for the city’s retail,” recalls Marco Cremonini, president of Federmoda Bologna, an association that brings together around 500 fashion retail stores in the metropolitan area. “The sector is going through a complicated period. From Covid onwards, stores have suffered a lot. This event can mark the restart. A synergy with the institutions will be needed to make the city accessible to operators from outside the city. Neighborhood shops will also be involved,” continues Cremonini.

The project was born as an evolution of Centergross’s winter melody event, which in 2019 brought a selection of its brands to the Pincio steps to parade their winter collections. The format was replicated in 2020, before adding a second annual summer date in its subsequent editions. The Bologna Fashion Festival takes up this legacy, transforming the event into a broader and more widespread container.

“Not a fashion week, but a festival to talk about fashion through conferences, meetings and shop activities,” explains Roberto Corbelli, art director of the Bff. “We have leveraged the strengths of the city, which in the modern era was the capital of silk. Among these, universities and multi-brand stores. Micro entities are increasingly important in tourism promotion. Today retail tourism accounts for 3 points of GDP in Italy”, observes Corbelli.

The Bologna Fashion Festival will have the support of the Bologna Welcome foundation, which will promote the event with dedicated communication initiatives. “Bologna has great potential, but the attractiveness of local fashion is underestimated. Tourist attendance increased by 12% compared to pre-covid. Now we have to push the artisans and companies that produce garments of extraordinary value”, says Daniele Ravaglia, president of Bologna Welcome.

The project also lands on the big screen with the documentary film Bologna, art, fashion and culture directed by Roberto Corbelli, who has already won an international award. But in the pipeline for the debut edition there is already a new film of around 15-18 minutes which will be presented in September.