Today, the 86th edition of Expo Riva Schuh kicked off with an opening talk entitled “The on-going changes in fashion timescales,” which was held at 11 a.m. in the conference hall of the Riva del Garda Exhibition Centre. The meeting was attended by Marc Sondermann, director of Fashion magazine, Enrico Cietta, senior partner of Diomedea, Roberto Pellegrini, Chairman of Riva del Garda Fierecongressi and Giovanni Laezza, Managing Director of Riva del Garda Fierecongressi.
The debate, which emerges from the fashion show arena, came about as a result of the idea of re-thinking the timing of fashion collection launches and the subsequent need to understand to what extent the current system can reduce the lapse from the moment in which a product is offered to when it actually reaches the consumer. These are two crucial issues that could also have very real implications for the footwear market, being so intrinsically linked to the world of fashion and its timescales.
The issue of timing positioning is also a determining factor for trade fairs, and especially for Expo Riva Schuh, which has always used its early timing as a strategic advantage. In actual fact, opting for an early time slotmeets the demands of those who attend the fair and confirming this approach means a key sign of coherency as far as the market is concerned. Being an event aimed at the volume footwear sector, planning time for buying and production are extended and therefore demand an earlier meeting point.
At the same time, however, the opposite phenomenon has also been witnessed at Expo Riva Schuh: the event is also very late from a certain point of view, in as much as the distinction between products for the two seasons is becoming increasingly less defined. The event, therefore, is also a pre-cursor to the theme of the debate: the timing of presenting collections is increasingly closer to the moment the product reaches the consumer and those collections that are planned well ahead of time are being integrated with smaller just-in-time ranges.
Expo Riva Schuh will run until Tuesday 14th June at the Riva del Garda Exhibition Centre.