White Street Market and White Man & Woman, held in Milan at the former Ansaldo Area from June 9-11, 2018, drew a total of 8,800 visitors.
White Street Market, the debut event open to the public and focused on streetwear and sportswear collections, hosted about 20 happenings including workshops, exhibitions, showcases and musical events and attracted consumers alongside buyers, insiders and press. The newborn event also achieved significant results through social media. For instance, its newborn Instagram account collected more than 3,220 followers and registered over 200,000 impressions in a few days only.
Differently, the traditional format of the B2B show White Man & Woman was very quiet–as confirmed by exhibitors, visitors and by attendance figures counting 10% fewer visitors than a year ago though keeping its international buyers’ presence stable despite Milan Menswear Week’s always more condensed calendar and reduced success. “WSM prized us all for our courage and great work as we created a formula that innovates our sector and makes it grow more contemporary,” said Massimiliano Bizzi, founder of White. “This first edition of WSM has registered over 8,800 visitors and will certainly be repeated, though within our future men’s edition shows only. We had already noticed in the past the difficulties related to men’s fashion buyer affluence in Milan. This was one of the reasons why we started creating a new format that could involve both B2B and B2C.”
While speaking to a vast audience of consumers, young designers, students and fashion addicts he also explained how this new creation can bring important change to the city and the fashion business: “I was never convinced that fashion events should only be lived by a few insiders. We started WSM as a happening open to everyone exactly in the same area where the successful Milan Design Week Off-Road–AKA Fuorisalone–happens and we were right as fashion can become an occasion for meeting and sharing cultural events. For this reason I also suggest all of you to be yourself and always try to follow your instinct. Nothing is impossible if you follow your dreams. I come from the street and quite some years ago I pursued my dreams by simply asking for support more than once from insiders and most of the time the answer I received was: ‘Why not try it?’”
Despite the low attendance, White Man & Woman hosted a selection of highly inspiring brands thanks to some new strategic alliances including the recently announced one with the Project New York show. The US men’s and women’s trade show and White Milano signed a partnership to strengthen their presence in global markets dedicated to menswear. They aim to join forces and collect brands, designers and US and European players together to offer a fresher vision of international design brands for every edition of the show.
Thanks to this collaboration, White hosted the New York brand Abasi Rosborough. Likewise Project will celebrate the collaboration with White by hosting a celebratory event during New York Market Week to be held on July 22-24, 2018.
The collaboration will continue also for the next winter season and will involve the influential US trade show platform UBM Fashion (including Project and MAGIC among others). The aim of the initiative is to focus on matchmaking between buyers and appealing brands to be hosted by the Italian and the US shows.
Also hosted by this edition’s White was Ahead–the Function Room, a selection of athleisure brands supported by Tomorrow London LTD, a high-end sportswear and streetwear fashion platform supporting brands’ scouting, growth and worldwide development. Other innovative exhibitors included White’s special guest Matthew Miller, Sagittaire A, Avavav, Wrad, Ih Nom Uh Nit, Office 63, All, True NYC, Hi On Life, Maxime Hernandez, Fade Out and JP/PPW x WA among others.
Read also:
