I mentioned a while ago that I had the chance to accompany my fashion journalist friend to the fashion fair Pitti Bimbo. If you’ve never heard of Pitti, it is basically a fashion institution.
Pitti Immagine
Pitti Immagine is the organization that offers some of the biggest fashion tradeshows in the world, working on an international level. If you follow blogs like The Sartorialist, you can rest assured that you’ve seen Pitti! During the months of January and June, Pitti Uomo (Pitti Man) is held), the biggest and most internationally acclaimed men’s fasion fair in the World.
In the 1950s the Centre for Italian Fashion “Centro per la Moda Italiana” held their first ever catwalks in the White Room “Sala Bianca” of the historic Pitti Building. For a 30 year period, these fashion shows placed Italy at the center of the international Fashion World, calling great attention to Italian designers and style. From here a constitution was created for the “Pitti Immagine” company.
As with all industries, unless you work in the middle of it, it is hard to imagine the sheer scale and size. The fashion and lifestyle industries are no exception. Pitti Immagine is host to fairs dedicated to textiles, accessories, perfumes and food along with their pre-collection, women’s, kids and men’s clothing fairs.
This is the first time I have ever gone to Pitti Bimbo, since for the last 5 years I have either represented a brand, met clients or gone to taken design and market research classes at Pitti Uomo.
I had no idea what I was in for.
The Luxury Children’s Clothing World
I will be very honest and say that my son owns more designer clothing than I do! He’s received Ralph Lauren, il Gufo, Burberry and many other designer items, some of which he still needs to grow into.
Here he is in his Burberry sweater!
I have taken great satisfaction in buying him a few artisan designer things (on sale) but I have to admit that to me dressing him well means the Zara and H&M sales rack usually.
However, I cannot deny that my favorite items in his wardrobe, and the things that give me great pride in dressing him are his cute designer clothes. He looks like such a cute little man, all dressed up and snazzy. I would seriously wash his luxury cashmere, cotton blend tracksuits every day because they were so much softer, warmer, cozier and chicer than anything else he had (thanks Auntie Suzie!).
Ugh, ignorance is sometimes bliss I suppose. I grew up wearing Bargain Harold’s clothes and hand me downs. TO THIS DAY remember the shock on my grandmother’s face when, at 15, I saved up to get an $80 corduroy Club Monaco jacket. I wonder what she’d think about the sales shopping I just did?…ouch!
The luxury children’s clothing world is a lot like this fake Pinterest account of an imaginary well-dressed toddler “Quinoa” (thanks Adrienne for sending this to me).
Every Major Brand
If you’re like me you’ve noticed a huge trend in the last 10 years whereby every major luxury fashion brand has developed their children’s clothing line. At Pitti Bimbo I saw the upcoming collections of Versace, Fendi, Roberto Cavalli and even Dsquared, I didn’t know Dsquared had a kids clothing line….well, they do!
As my husband often says, children are fun to dress. They are our little dolls, and just like I can take great pride in looking good, nothing makes me prouder than when my son looks good! He is an extention of me and my style, and before he gets to that phase where everything he wears will be a bad decision (I used to make my own flourecent yellow pants with racing stripes down the side), I’m going to dress him however I want!
This is my day at Pitti Bimbo
My Journalist friend Dina and I took the 1 hour train from Modena to Florence. My son obviously went with us!
He read a fashion magazine on the train.
Pitti Bimbo is held in the historic Fortezza del Basso, a Military Fortress in Florence built during the Renaissance. It was raining cats and dogs, so the whole atmosphere wasn’t as luxuious as it usually is during the Pitti Uomo Men’s Show, where hundreds of people stand outside to be seen.
Instead people were running for cover.
I left my son in the free daycare provided by the Fair. He had a great time.
The difference between a Fashion Tradeshow and any other Tradeshow is the effort put into ensuring that every single angle of the Fair is “Fashion Worthy”! Look at these cool tents you can duck into to eat a snack, write something down, make a phone call or make-out.
I really wanted to play hide and go seek, but i didn’t want to damage my professional “blogger” appearance.
The Desigual Stand had music playing and fresh fruit juice cocktails being offered to passers by. I’m sure if it hadn’t been pouring there would have been more of a crowd. Unfortunately, it is so hard to look cool while holding your coat over your head.
- This was one of my favorite sections of the Pitti Bimbo.
And also where John Galliano had his Children’s Wear collection.
- In many of the stands for the larger brands you must show your entry pass to the hostesses to prove you are either a buyer or the media and not a competitor. Being a fashion fair, the collections are sample collections and may not all go into production, so you want to ensure your ideas aren’t stolen.
In Nerds we Trust
At some point I was thirsty and tired and wandered into this special event by the brand MASH.
The MASH stand had a great vibe to it with Coke bottle lights and a built-in treehouse.
I was offered a fruit cocktail and an espresso, thank you MASH!
Pitti Bimbo is MASSIVE, every section of the Fair has a different atmosphere and decor, and the map to help you get around plus catalog is 2 cm thick!
Clothes for future Fashion Bloggers.
Not only does the Pitti Bimbo proide a showcase for children’s fashion brands but children’s book publishing houses and editors from all over the World were showcasing there as well.
My journalist friend Dina and I were separated for most of the Fair, and every hour or so we’d meetup for a drink or snack and to share our Pitti Bimbo gossip. Here you can appreciate how ridiculously small I am ! I could never wear heels to a fashion fair though, in the Fashion World if you wear heels to Pitti it is like saying ”I don’t plan on buying anything, seeing anything or doing anything, I’ll just be standing in this corner lookin’ good” and people don’t take you seriously.
Some brands spend a lot of money for their stands and presentations, creating mini-universes within the Fair and hosting their own private events.
Each edition of Pitti has a theme. This year’s Pitti Bimbo theme was “Rock Me”, hence the awesome sound art installation created outside with records and speakers. I really didn’t get a chance to fully enjoy it because of my deep fear of getting electrocuted, but it looked cool from afar.
What do we think of the theme “Rock Me”? Not so children appropriate is it! Maybe something got lost in translation and they meant to say “Rock Out”.
“I’m feelin’ like Bieber mom, can i take the car?”…… “No”.
- This is the indoor smokers lounge (aka stairway), ahhh Italy!
Break time aka people watching in front of the Fendi stand.
Roberto Cavalli
Versace
The Versace Stroller
What is Fashion without a cocktail party?
Cupcakes for the kids and champagne for the adults.
Even at a Children’s fashion Fair you are sure to spot a fashion blogger!
I did discover a new concept / brand I had never heard of before, Pixelbags.
Their concept is bags of all shapes and sizes with a rubber grid system so kids can stick on little rubber “pixels” and make their own design.
This is what I came up with.
Hope you enjoyed this forray into Pitti Bimbo with me. I will most likely be attending the next edition and would love to know what you’d like to see more of.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND