The film she produced as part of Milan Fashion Week showcased the collection she presented in February rather than her new spring 2021 proposal, which does indeed exist. “We are selling part of the new collection this week, but I’m not going to go public with it,” the creative director says, on the phone from Milan.
Missoni’s move follows brands such as Louis Vuitton, which repeated its fall 2020 menswear offering as part of its spring 2021 men’s spectacular in Shanghai this August, and Coach, which incorporated pieces from its fall 2020 show into its spring 2021 collection video this week. Like many in the fashion industry, Missoni sees the events of 2020 as an opportunity for industry changes she considers much-needed. During lockdown – which she spent with her 89-year-old mother Rosita, who co-founded the family company with her husband Ottavio in 1953 – she hired Armani veteran Livio Proli as the new CEO of Missoni. Since April, they have been “fixing, fixing, fixing,” as she puts it.
What was broken? “Many things. All the problems of the lockdown, and maybe other problems that were there. It’s taking a new direction for the vision of the company, planning our future, and reorganising.” In July, when Missoni sold her pre-collection to buyers, she was reminded of the at-times confusing ways of the industry. “For a long time, I’ve thought there was something out of tune. Fifteen years ago, the fashion show was there to sell to the trade. Then, it became more important. Now, you are selling pre-collections to cover 70 to 80 per cent of your season budget without a show, and then you’d make an event as big as a fashion show is for the last 25 per cent. They’ve become communication events; social media happened.”
A medium-sized brand, Missoni depends on wholesale and retailers to fuel its business, unlike super brands, which largely sell to their own stores. “It’s very different for brands that don’t do wholesale. They can do fashion shows all around the world, not to sell collections but as communication events,” Missoni points out. Going forward, showing her collections in-season (i.e. at the same time they hit shelves) won’t mean a departure from the promotional structure of fashion. “We’ll find a way of sending pictures to the press so you can work with the merchandise. We want to see your point of view,” Missoni says.
Nor is she going to abandon the traditional fashion show format she loves for its “emotional” value. “Maybe next spring, I go back and do a fashion show in Sumirago like the first show after my parents left Florence. This would be my dream: to do a show at the factory,” she suggests, referring to the Lombardian hills where her own villa is also located, its sprawling gardens begging to be used for a fashion show. “Yes, yes, yes! That’s my dream already. But then the timing is so crazy. You cannot take people out of Milan for two hours. Maybe in the future, who knows? If things get different, slower,” Missoni says.
The quarantine period spawned countless industry debates about changes to the fashion system, but the first fashion weeks post-lockdown are largely following its classic setup. What made Angela Missoni act upon big ideas when others didn’t? “Because I always act,” she responds, laughing. “We confuse fashion with luxury only. The meaning of fashion is something for now, so we need to be in the moment and understand it. Fashion is usually the first to anticipate and accept change. There’s been something wrong with the system for a long time. We need to change it.”
A medium-sized brand, Missoni depends on wholesale and retailers to fuel its business, unlike super brands, which largely sell to their own stores. “It’s very different for brands that don’t do wholesale. They can do fashion shows all around the world, not to sell collections but as communication events,” Missoni points out. Going forward, showing her collections in-season (i.e. at the same time they hit shelves) won’t mean a departure from the promotional structure of fashion. “We’ll find a way of sending pictures to the press so you can work with the merchandise. We want to see your point of view,” Missoni says.
Nor is she going to abandon the traditional fashion show format she loves for its “emotional” value. “Maybe next spring, I go back and do a fashion show in Sumirago like the first show after my parents left Florence. This would be my dream: to do a show at the factory,” she suggests, referring to the Lombardian hills where her own villa is also located, its sprawling gardens begging to be used for a fashion show. “Yes, yes, yes! That’s my dream already. But then the timing is so crazy. You cannot take people out of Milan for two hours. Maybe in the future, who knows? If things get different, slower,” Missoni says.
The quarantine period spawned countless industry debates about changes to the fashion system, but the first fashion weeks post-lockdown are largely following its classic setup. What made Angela Missoni act upon big ideas when others didn’t? “Because I always act,” she responds, laughing. “We confuse fashion with luxury only. The meaning of fashion is something for now, so we need to be in the moment and understand it. Fashion is usually the first to anticipate and accept change. There’s been something wrong with the system for a long time. We need to change it.”
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