Florence - Pitti Filati has confirmed that the its September edition has been postponed until January 2021 following the impact of the Covid-9 pandemic.
The board of directors of Pitti Immagine said that due to an “insufficient number of confirmations of attendance” as well as “the ongoing state of difficulty of the companies”, the organisers decided the events should be postponed and all efforts should be focused instead on the Pitti Connect digital platform which will be open to exhibitors and buyers from July.
In a statement, Pitti Immagine president Claudio Marenzi said: “This was a very painful yet inevitable decision dictated by the conditions of operational and economic difficulty in which the majority of the manufacturing companies and retailers - shops, department stores - find themselves and by the uncertainties that continue to persist regarding the modalities of traveling from one country to another, including quarantine restrictions, which have obviously heavily conditioned the plans of international buyers.”
Pitti Immagine CEO Raffaello Napoleone added: “We will now be putting all our resources into the Pitti Connect digital fairs for which we will be receiving decisive help from the Italian Trade Agency ICE). We are very confident in our ability to offer companies the real Pitti service which is capable of meeting their business, promotion and communication requirements, especially in this part of the season.”
Pitti Immagine announced Pitti Connect in May, a digital version of the physical fairs allowing fashion professionals to connect and carry out scouting activities, contact exhibitors, plan meetings and view collections through video chats or virtual showrooms.
It will launch at the beginning of July and will run until the end of September.
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