PITTI FILATI: ECOLOGY, THE NEW FRONTIER FOR CREATIVITY AND LUXURY

“Pitti Filati opens this edition with even more emphasis on its creativity and trend workshop formula", says Agostino Poletto, deputy general manager of Pitti Immagine. “The show's research continues the theme launched with the Eco-Luxe project at the last edition and, with a series of projects, focuses on the new scenarios produced by the dialogue between nature and technology – scenarios and concepts that are strongly influencing design and the market . Equo-Eco-Friendly, the new space/workshop/laboratory on the "eco" theme and the second stage of Eco-Luxe, and Turbonatura the Pitti Immagine Spazio Ricerca under the creative direction of Angelo Figus and Nicola Miller are the dynamic response in terms of research and creativity from Pitti Filati. Together, these two projects put the focus on the important theme that we offer our audience – international buyers and designers from the most important names in fashion who come to Florence seeking stimuli for their research and who are the asset that makes Pitti Filati the leading event in the field of yarns for the knitting industry“”.

THE PITTI FILATI SPAZIO RICERCA PRESENTS TURBONATURA

The Pitti Filati Spazio Ricerca is an observatory and experimental laboratory/workshop where international fashion trends are analyzed and launched; it is a meeting place for the world's creative heads in fashion and design. At Pitti Filati 63 its contribution is TURBONATURA, the theme and title of this season, which analyzes and studies the relationship between nature and the future – the great theme at this edition.

Angelo Figus, fashion designer, and Nicola Miller, knitwear expert, have curated both the research and settings of this edition's Spazio Ricerca dedicated to trends for the 2009-2010 fall/winter season. TURBONATURA, features an imaginative and visionary grafting of nature and technology, a world suspended between reality and projections into the future where nature and the manmade go hand-in-hand. It offers a series of suggestions in the quest for the ideal balance between two apparently contradictory concepts and on which to base the present with the goal of building the future: a sublime process of contemporary alchemy. It is a story told in color, with a surreal, futuristic forest as the main character – a forest of trees with steel grafts nourished by the vital lymph of yarn with fruits/yarns sprouting from the branches.

EQUO-ECO-FRIENDLY, PITTI FILATI PRESENTS THE SECOND PART OF ECO-LUXE

Equo-Eco-Friendly is the latest innovation at Pitti Filati. It is a project/laboratory/workshop and area dedicated to the evolution of the concepts of natural, ecological and fair trade – inspirational themes for new market trends and design that are generating a significant change in the meaning of luxury. Developed and curated by Ornella Bignami, expert in knitwear and trends, as the ideal "next step" in what we began last season with Eco-Luxe, Equo-Eco-Friendly analyzes the interactions between nature and technology. It also presents a new range of products that do not necessarily come from organic farming, but are made with recycled materials – cotton, polyester, nylon – and finished and dyed with low environmental-impact processes with special attention to energy savings and closely tied to local production and markets. Equo-Eco-Friendly is staged within a special layout designed by architect Alessandro Moradei.

THE EVENTS AT PITTI FILATI 63

CLAUDIA LOSI. LA CODA DELLA BALENA E ALTRI PROGETTI 1995-2008. This is the exhibition organized by the The Osservatorio per le Arti Contemporanee dell’Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze and Pitti Immagine at the Museo Marino Marini in Florence. At 6.00 p.m. on 2 July at the museum center in Piazza San Pancrazio, Florence, a cocktail party will be held to open the exhibition by the artist from Piacenza, Claudia Losi, which can be viewed until 5 July. The enormous cashmere whale that is the star of the exhibition will then say goodbye to Florence with a special event and leave for its journey around the world: next stop, the Icon Gallery, Birmingham.

VINTAGE SELECTION N.12 PRESENTS “YOU GINGER, ME FRED”

From 2 to 5 July 2008 the Stazione Leopolda will be the venue for Vintage Selection, the fair featuring vintage clothing, accessories and design objects held concomitantly with Pitti Filati 63. It is a research lab that looks to the fashions of the past, but it is also an archive that today's designers dip into and get inspiration for their collections. Over the years, Vintage Selection has become a "don't miss" occasion for cool hunters and the style bureaus of major international fashion companies – as well as the greatest market for vintage enthusiasts and collectors. Produced in cooperation with A.N.G.E.L.O., at each edition Vintage Selection chooses a theme to create atmospheres which will be carried through the fair by around 40 exhibitors. The inspirational theme for this edition is the world of music and dance: the layout-route designed by Alessandro Moradei, "You Ginger, Me Fred", is the backdrop for clothing, accessories and objects tied to our musical memories, from classic to modern, from the Swing of the 'forties to the Rock of the sixties, from the Charleston in the twenties to disco-dance in the eighties. There is a special focus on today's big names in the vintage world such as Lilly Ann, Biba, Vivienne Westwood and Thierry Mugler.

PITTI FILATI 63

THE NAMES AND NUMBERS AT THIS EDITION :

World preview of 2009-1010 fall/winter collections of yarns for the knitting industry

EXHIBITORS

114 firms (25 inside the Fashion At Work section)

30 of which from abroad

AREA 23,000 square meters

BUYERS

6,215 buyers at the last summer edition of which 2,894 (46.56% of the total) from abroad

Main foreign reference markets: Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Japan, France, Hong Kong, Spain, Holland and Turkey

Main expanding foreign markets : France, Russia, Spain and Sweden

NEW NAMES AND RETURNS

The new names and returns include:

Australian Wool Innovation (Australia); Schoeller Wool (Austria); Knitmania (Canada); Eisaku Noro, Sato Seni (Japan); J C Rennie, Knoll, Zinc (United Kingdom); Inwool, Linsieme Filati, Lustrosa, Media Impianti, Nardi Filati (Italy); Goyal Garb (India); Inca Tops (Peru).