PRATO. Better Milan than Paris. Prato textile entrepreneurs have made their choice.
The main fabric fairs are imminent, focusing on the 2025-2026 autumn-winter collections: Première Vision will take place in Paris on 2, 3 and 4 July, while the 39th edition of Milano Unica will take place the following week, 9, 10 and 11 July.
A fact that clearly emerges on the participation of Prato companies is the attention, still growing, towards the Milanese fair: 118 exhibitors, against the 95 of the corresponding 2023 edition and the 101 of January 2024. There are instead 18 (against, respectively, 55 and 20) participants at Première Vision. A picture, this, that highlights the appreciation for Milano Unica, its strategies and its organization, but that also constitutes a programmatic manifesto of the Prato textile industry, increasingly oriented towards the high profile that characterizes the Milanese fair.
“Without taking anything away from the great and important Parisian fair and the undoubtedly motivated choices of those who prefer it or place it alongside Milano Unica, it is clear that the latter fair is recognized as being more congenial to the connotation that Prato textiles have given themselves – comments Maurizio Sarti, coordinator of the Fabric Producers group of the Fashion System section of Confindustria Toscana Nord, as well as a member of the Milano Unica Presidency Committee – Programmatically, Milano Unica intends to become the point of reference for quality textiles in the world. Hence the careful selection of exhibitors, almost exclusively Italian and European, who must promptly respond to the rigorous requirements requested by the organization of the fair. Companies today need to play their cards right: the market is very static.”
In 2023, the overall production of Prato fabrics fell in volume by -4.3% (export -8.1% in value compared to 2022), also due to the last quarter with the production bottlenecks generated by the consequences of the flood of November 2; but the disaster was felt most by the first quarter of 2024, which in comparison with the same period of 2023 marked -10.9% in production volumes and -11.9% in the value of exports. Regarding the export of Prato fabrics, also in 2023 the first foreign outlet markets in terms of importance were European Community countries: Spain still in first place with 14.6% of the total (although down by -3.2% on 2022); second is France (conversely up by +6.9%, thus covering 9% of 2023 exports); third is Romania (-2.1%, with a share of 7.9%), a country where packaging operations are also carried out on behalf of companies from other countries. Followed by Germany, Morocco, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Turkey.
“There are many factors that penalize the fashion market – adds Sarti – The general political-economic situation and inflation, in decline but still significant, are ballasts; but the direct brake in recent months is represented by the excessive stocks accumulated by brand and still in the process of being placed on the market, this gives a measure of the difficulties of forecasting even for those who have more direct contact with the market: a topic that requires a lot of work, I believe, using all the tools available. available from the most advanced technology. In this context, it is difficult to assert even the best characteristics of products and producers. The commitment of our companies towards certifications and traceability remains strong: an appropriate and necessary path which, however, also shows. of the flaws. We are in fact at the beginning of a new and more sustainable way of producing fashion: for it to establish itself and grow, we need to leave no room for greenwashing, façade operations and opportunistic behaviour. Above all, we must avoid the possibility that there are links in the supply chain that remain, especially in terms of respect for workers’ rights, no-man’s lands, compensation funds, which are not at all virtuous, and the costs of good practices followed in different and more visible phases. ”.
“The success of Milano Unica is also a bit of the success of Prato, which has always strongly believed in the national fair – adds the president of Pratotrade Giovanni Gramigni – The profile of excellence that the fair has given itself represents a strategy that is popular because it allows companies to feel, and be perceived, as part of an exclusive club: exhibiting at Milano Unica is already in itself a certificate of quality. As a consortium we also actively participate in the planning phases of the fair: my colleague Sandro Ciardi and I are part of the technical table of the management company and together with colleagues from the other areas we are convinced that Milano Unica must increasingly combine its image with that of the city that hosts it, which in turn is a powerful symbol of Italian fashion. Hence the idea of the fair to create events that allow visitors to get to know and experience Milan. Maximum attention also to the other fairs of interest to the consortium members, first of all Première Vision, which remains the great international showcase that the world of fashion knows and appreciates”.
The Prato fabric producing companies (warp, knitted, jacquard, special, technical, coated, velvet, pile and others) are 230 with over 4,500 direct employees.
The latest available data estimates a turnover of more than 2 billion euros for these companies: a large part (around 70%) can be attributed to exports, which in 2022 amounted to 1.38 billion euros (+20% on 2021).
