Behind The Scenes of The Italian Fashion Industry | OrangeBay"Italian Fashion Study Week" Part 2

"Made In Italy" has become increasingly important to the global luxury industry over the past few years. From a series of articles published by Luxe.CO it is clear that LVMH, Kering, Richemont and other luxury giants, have invested heavily in purchasing or building new factories in leather goods, jewelry, eyewear and other segments of fashion industry in Italy to better control the high-quality supply chain more firmly and strengthen the training of local artisans and technicians.

To get a closer look at the Italian fashion industrial ecology, Orange Bay University, in its first "Italian Fashion Study Week", organized a visit to the headquarters of WHITE Milano ---- one of the most important international showcase in Italy, and the headquarters of fashion luxury  boutique store LuisaViaRoma, showroom of Archiproducts ---- the largest "permanent virtual exhibition"​ of architecture and design and Montblanc’s leather production center in Florence.

WHITE Milano, founded by Massimiliano Bizzi and Brenda Bellei in 2000, is focused not only on creativity and innovation, but also on the culture of tradition and business making. In the show that ended this September, WHITE Milano did well again with 28,000 visitors and a large increase in the number of overseas buyers. It also hosted the first China Cascade project, which brought together five designer brands from China.

During the Orange Bay University visit, Ms. Brenda Bellei expressed confidence that Milan would become the world's most important fashion center. Important fashion shows like WHITE Milano attracts a large number of buyers from well-known luxury department stores and fashion stores in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Japan and China each season, including: Renaissance department stores (Milan), le maison (Paris), Galeries Lafayette (Paris), Harvey Nichols (London), Selfridges (London), Intermix (New York), Holt Renfrew (Toronto), I.T. (Hong Kong), Isetan (Tokyo), Daegu (Seoul), Be More (Dubai), etc. These international buyers come to Milan not only to search for Italian brands and products, but also to get a one-stop view of fashion trends and emerging brands from around the world.

Founded in 1930 in Florence, LuisaViaRoma is one of the oldest fashion luxury stores in Italy. The current CEO, Andrea Panconesi, is the third generation of the family. In 1999 when the Internet was just emerging, he boldly created an online luxury trading platform ---- LUISAVIAROMA.COM and soon became a pioneer in the field of global luxury e-commerce, making the old family store a shopping paradise for global fashion experts.

Andrea Panconesi is also very good at exploring the unique value of different brands, and attaches great importance to building a cooperative relationship with brands for the long term. Since 1970, when LUISAVIAROMA.COM first introduced Japanese brands like Kenzo to the European market, the platform has gathered more than 600 brands from different backgrounds and levels. In June 2017, LuisaViaRoma launched the LVR edition series, which features exclusive limited monthly collaborations with well-known fashion/luxury brands.

During the week, Orange Bay University students went to visit LUISAVIAROMA flagship store and headquarters to learn how the family-owned company, which has only "one store, one warehouse and one website", has made its 90-year presence in the competitive fashion retail market a reality. In addition, Merchandising Director and Fashion Buyers of LuisaViaRoma gave students a comprehensive lecture -- from the fashion buyer's workflow perspective, the background system, data management and trend analysis methods and key points.

Archiproducts.com is the world’s largest "permanent virtual exhibition"​ of architecture and design, with an annual visitors of 46 million and 1.7 million registered users. The online e-commerce platform provides over 200,000 single products from 3,500 brands. Designers can publish their works on the platform and promote their products.

Over the past 20 years, they have not only connected the global fashion home furnishing brands with industry experts, they have also cultivated many classic home furnishing brands and created special online trade exhibitions and developed apps so that people can understand the latest trends at any time, and choose and buy the latest and most complete fashion home furnishing products according to their preferences.

Orange Bay Students visited Archiproducts' showroom in Milan (below), which showcased the works of some of the most creative furniture designers in Italy and other countries. The layout of each showroom is distinctive and attractive, and the space here is often lent to fashion media, brand PR for advertising campaigns.

In addition, under the arrangement of Richemont Group, the Montblanc leather production center opened its door for Orange Bay University for the Fashion Study Week. Here, students witnessed Tuscan leather craftsmen practicing centuries-old craftsmanship, where their hand-made products pass through layers of precision instruments before reaching their customers. Old bags used by European customers can be sent to the customer service center here to be refurbished and revived, to help preserve precious memories. Orange Bay students also met with talented Italian "Masters" to closely observe the process, technology and management process behind a top luxury brand.

At the end of the visit, Orange Bay students received a special gift - Montblanc's exclusive virgin olive oil from the olive trees grown around the leather production center!

About "Italian Fashion Study Week" of Orange Bay University

From October 7 to 13, 2019, the first "Italian Fashion Study Week", organized by Orange Bay University, brought students to visit and study in top design schools, luxury brand headquarters and art museums in Milan and Florence, as well as to engage in in-depth discussions with brand managers, designers, artists and curators to better understand Italian luxury brands and the fashion industry supply chain, and fully experience Italian culture, art, design aesthetics and lifestyle.

About Orange Bay University

Founded in the spring of 2017 by the authoritative fashion business media Luxe.CO, Orange Bay University for the first time combines world-class case teaching with pioneering entrepreneurship education with the help of the powerful lecturers in the industry, and aims to help entrepreneurs, enterprises and investors in the fashion industry grow with the times and practice "lifelong learning"!