After a 2020 marked by a sharp decline in turnover (-19.5%), in 2021 the Italian men's fashion sector began its recovery, growing by 15.2% and thus returning to exceed 9.4 billion euros. .
The good performance, however, was not enough to fill the losses compared to the levels of 2019: of the more than 1.9 billion lost in 2020, there is still a gap of almost 740 million (-7.3%).
In other words, the 2021 turnover is -7.3% lower than the pre-pandemic one.
These are the data released by Sistema Moda Italia for Pitti Uomo 102, scheduled from 14 to 17 June in Florence.
In the Fortezza there are about 640 brands (38% of which are foreign) seeking redemption from the crisis.
As always, exports are what companies aim for.
Still looking to 2021, menswear exports grew by 13.4%, returning to exceed 6.6 billion euros.
At the same time, imports experienced a variation of + 7.9% and reached around 4 billion.
In the first quarter of 2022, the positive trend continued: exports grew by 6.3%, for a total of over 1.7 billion euros, and, at the same time, imports recorded a + 22.6% , for a total of almost 1.4 billion euros.
Among the first markets still remain France, Germany, with a leap of the USA (+ 57.9%), in addition to Switzerland (as a logistics hub).
On the other hand, direct men's fashion sales in China dropped (-1.9%).
With reference to Russia, the first quarter of 2022 saw a decline of 22.5%.
If you go on to analyze the Italian market,
an equally recovering picture emerges, but still far from pre-pandemic levels.
With reference to the calendar year 2021, men's fashion purchases by resident families have seen a reversal of the trend, after the collapse of 2020 (-30.1%), reaching a growth of 22%.
At the distribution channel level (the data refer to the period March 2021-February 2022), the national men's market is confirmed to be dominated by chains (+ 36.2%), followed by large-scale distribution (+ 40.6%) and then by retail independent, grown by 56%.
On the contrary, the online market, after the boom during the pandemic, is slowing down (-12.6%).
"On the eve of Pitti Uomo 102, our hearts feel strong signs of recovery, our heads register the unknowns. Both must push us to do more and better - declares Antonella Mansi,
president of the Florence Center for Italian fashion -.
But to do this I think a symbolic gesture that helps to change perspective, to cause a displacement is useful.
Hence the idea of the Florence Center for Italian fashion and its partners to lay a green lawn on the stones of Via Tornabuoni and build a labyrinth in Piazza Strozzi, referring among other things to ancient city traditions ".