Furs Set Pace at Italian Fairs

MILAN — Furs, both real and fake, natural and dyed, in apparel and accessories, were the biggest fashion story at two adjacent women’s ready-to-wear and accessories trade shows — Mipap and Super Pitti. But the buzz at both fairs, held at MilanoFieraCity during Milan Fashion Week, centered on a dip in international presence. This lament came despite upticks in overall attendance and a favorable euro-to-dollar exchange. Mipap — also known as MI Milano-Pret-à-Porter — exhibited 170 collections to 4,065 visitors, an 8 percent upswing from last year’s edition. With 22 percent of visitors hailing from abroad, exhibitors were somewhat despondent over a sparse international presence and its midlevel demographic. While slightly larger than the assemblage of Far East buyers (mainly from Japan and South Korea), the American presence remained stable from the last edition. With the dollar and euro nearly equal in value, the hope was that this would entice more U.S. buyers — and it might in coming market weeks. Aside from small upticks from the Czech Republic and Poland, the Eastern European presence shrank, while Russian buyers were reeling under precarious economic straits in their country. Flora Fedi — the fashion label under the auspices of its Prato-based knitwear factory, Maglificio Denny —

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