Pitti Filati, research as an antidote to the crisis

The fair that will be held in Florence until Thursday 3 July, the 97th edition of Pitti Filati, projects us into the autumn-winter 2026-2027, because spinning and weaving are a season ahead of clothing (in Milan and Paris the men's collections for spring-summer 2026 have just been shown).

The data published on the eve of the fair are therefore worrying in themselves, with a 2024 turnover down 9.8% to 2.6 billion, a much worse trend than the preliminary estimate in February, during the winter edition of Pitti Filati, in which the decline for 2024 was forecast at 6.2%. But the concern also comes from the "anticipatory" value of the sectors upstream of the textile-fashion-accessory supply chain and it will be interesting to analyze the data that will be released next week, on the occasion of Milano Unica, the large textile fair scheduled for 8 to 10 July.

But companies are reacting, as demonstrated by the numbers at Pitti Filati, with 130 exhibitors, 25 of which are from abroad. Also linked to the collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ICE Agency is the arrival of many buyers from abroad, as confirmed by Agostino Poletto, general manager of Pitti Immagine, the company that organizes the Florentine fairs: «The collaboration with the institutions allows us to continue investing precious resources in bringing the community of the most influential buyers in men's fashion and lifestyle to Florence and in inviting buyers from emerging markets».

More and more space for research, the only way to continue to stand out in the world, to counteract the slowdown and to be ready when the recovery arrives. Tomorrow's trends in knitting yarns are described in the new Research Space, alongside the proposals of the special sections Knitclub and CustomEasy: the latter, curated by Maurizio Brocchetto, intercepts an emerging need of manufacturing companies and end customers, customization. In addition to textile machines and the preciousness of the washes applied to high-end knitwear, the section hosts the other segments of the creative process: embroidery, finishing, design software.