The official calendar of Milan Digital Fashion Week

UPDATE 30/06/2020: The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana has announced the official calendar of the upcoming Milan Digital Fashion Week to be held from 14 to 17 July. The phygital event will replace the usual calendar of summer shows cancelled due to the Covid-19 and in it will merge, in digital form, the materials prepared for the Cruise collections of some of the major brands involved, such as Prada and Gucci. You can download the official calendar by clicking on this link. 

Unlike the past digital London Fashion Week, deserted by the major brands, which have opted for other fashion weeks or independent shows, the big players of Italian fashion and the rest of the traditional participants are present: Gucci, Prada, Msgm, Philipp Plein, Alberta Ferretti, Etro, Sunnei, Ermenegildo Zegna, Missoni and Salvatore Ferragamo have all confirmed their presence, including Dolce & Gabbana's great return to CNMI after they separated from the official programmes in 1998. Among the distinguished absentees will be Bottega Veneta, Fendi (which will organize its own show in September), Marni, Giorgio Armani and Jil Sander.

Milan Digital Fashion Week's seems to be the most accomplished calendar among other digital fashion weeks organized in the UK and France. If, in fact, London Fashion Week turned out to be a flop, which has given space to more independent designers but has remained without resonance due to the abandonment of the most famous brands, that of Paris, called Whispers of Paris in an attempt to detach it from the official fashion weeks, it still turns out to be without an official calendar just over a week from its inception.

Last Saturday, the president of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, Carlo Capasa announced the return of Dolce & Gabbana within the official calendar of Milan fashion shows, confirming their presence at the upcoming Milan Digital Fashion Week, that will be held from 14th to 17th July, after more than twenty years of independent shows. 

Other brands that had announced their participation in MDFW are:

• In April, Alessandro Sartori of Ermenegildo Zegna announced a new multimedia presentation format focused on the concept of phygital.
• In May, Gucci also confirmed its support for the initiative, with the presentation of materials from the Cruise 2021 show now cancelled during the last day of the digital event.
• Giorgio Armani will instead continue with his own independent calendar – and has returned to invite his Italian colleagues who are walking in Paris to bring their collections back to Milan.
• Other brands whose presence has been confirmed are Prada, Etro, Salvatore Ferragamo and Dsquared2.

At the announcement, CNMI President Carlo Capasa explained better how the new Milan Digital Fashion Week works. First, he stated that a first provisional timetable should be available around 11 June – which will confirm which and how many brands will join the initiative. As for the actual operation of the new format, Capasa explained that each brand will have a 20-minute slot to present their collection in whatever format they prefer. Shows and digital content will be broadcast live around the world while CNMI will make a range of extra content such as interviews, insights and backstage available to the public. A separate space will be dedicated to virtual showrooms. 

In fact, Dolce & Gabbana's show will be, at least in part, physical. The two Sicilian designers will show their collection on July 15, at 5.30 pm in the gardens of Campus University of the Humanitas Hospital. The show will be attended by selected members of the press and buyers. Later, a video of the show will be streamed live-streamed on the official platform of Milan Digital Fashion Week. An important event that marks the end of the disagreement between Dolce & Gabbana and CNMI, started in 1998, as well as one of the first physical shows real after the explosion of the coronavirus pandemic and precisely on the medical campus that the brand supports in its studies on the virus. Here's how the designers commented on the announcement:

«It took a long time to figure out if it was possible, for the lock down and the new provisions. But now, with maximum security, we will do everything. We will send the invitations and everyone will be free to decide. If they have to, the models, all Italian, will parade with masks, no problem. We are the most well-prepared place for safety». 

It will be a fashion show "in a minor tone", with less looks and less guests than usual, and certainly even more sober from the point of view of the mise-en-scène, which usually, when it comes to Dolce & Gabbana, is always something extremely dramatic and theatrical such as the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento, the Pinacoteca of Brera and the square of Monreale. The presentation of haute couture, haute couture and jewelry, on the other hand, will be completely digital and will take place through a video.