Clothes don’t make the customer

MF [21 March 2008]

According to the buyers Room, within the registration area of clothes there was a 30% drop in the first three months of 2008. The great maisons started gathering the sales points and checked out all the small multimarket shops.

The stock exchange crises and the cold temperatures have decreased the consumption of clothes. At the point that the Chamber of the buyer estimates for the first 3 months of 2008 a decrease of about 30% in selling compared to the same period of 2007.

The phenomenon is particularly evident in Italy, Portugal and Greece, due to the economical availability and dimensions of the medium buyer.

This was the comment of Giuseppe Zanotti and Tonino Perna at the inauguration of the new Giglio Fashion Store in Palermo. Two floor store for the best brands of fashion and more than 3000 people at the inauguration to celebrate the event.

Doors are not always open for the small buyer. He faces a major control from insurances which, in fact, pay more attention to the more affirmed client. Orders below a certain limit are denied and dreams fade away in front of the big producer.

In this context, names like Russo or Michele Giglio can either open new shops or, like Giglio, dress most of Sicily and let Russia court him trying to import his idea of business, but, as well this also why lots of names were not present at the Milan Shows last February.

The dimension guarantee the best brands in the shops and the top clients too, those rich clients who don’t pay too much attention to the variability of markets. “The year won’t be positive for everybody, and within a difficult market, the political crisis in Italy made things even worse”, said the vice president of Fashion Chamber, Saverio Moschillo, who brought up to not more than 500 the number of his Italian clients for his griffe, John Richmond . He reserved the concession of the main line to just 200 names, against the 750 selling points of Dolce&Gabbana for example.

“Only in Italy there is such a high concentration of small and medium enterprises in the distribution too and this is why the problem is so intensively perceived compared to other markets”, says Stefano Sassi, new Valentino’s president.