AS COVID CASES SURGE CUCINELLI & ARMANI ADJUST THEIR PLANS

Men’s Fashion Week in Italy will be a little quieter this year due to caution expressed over the rise in Covid-19 cases there and throughout the world.

Two major Italian fashion houses – Brunello Cucinelli and Giorgio Armani – have changed their plans for presenting their new collections this season.

The former, a longtime and major participant in the Pitti Uomo trade show in Florence (whose spring 2022 collection is pictured above), decided yesterday to opt out of it this season. “The current uptick in Covid infections has forced the fashion house to make a painful but necessary decision: to not participate in the next Pitti Uomo held in Florence from January 11 to 13, 2022,” it said in a statement.

While not appearing in-person at the show the Cucinelli sales campaign for the new men’s fall/winter 2022-23 will take place at its showrooms in Milan, New York and Shanghai where customers will be offered a Covid swab test.

The Milan showroom presentation for buyers and press will run from January 13 to 15.

“This decision was made after realizing and acknowledging the current moment that Italy and the rest of the world are currently experiencing,” the company added. “It was also made with a sense of responsibility, heading in a direction taken in recent months that we all hope can lead us as soon as possible to a normal life and relations.”

In a similar vein, Giorgio Armani announced yesterday that he was cancelling his live fashion shows for menswear in Milan and haute couture in Paris that were scheduled for this month due to Covid concerns.

In a statement, the fashion house said the decision was “made with great regret and following careful reflection in light of the worsening epidemiological situation.”

It added: “As the designer has expressed on many occasions, the shows are crucial and irreplaceable occasions but the health and safety of both employees and the public must once again take priority.”