Download Fashion Image and City Renewal in Milan Fashion Capital Ziying

Fashion Image and City Renewal in Milan Fashion Capital
Ziying ZHANG1, Yijing Xiang2, Yuchen Guo2
1
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, 20092,China,
[email protected]
2
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, 20092,China,
[email protected]
2
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, 20092,China,
[email protected]
Keywords: Milan; Fashion Capital; Driving Factors; Intermediaries; Multi-Brand
Store; City Image; Urban Renewal
Abstract: Milan, today, is one of the four top fashion capitals along with New York,
Paris, and London. Many fashion companies, as well as the industrial design
companies locate their headquarters and showrooms in the city. As the city image of
New York is a modern metropolitan, that of Paris is romanticism, and for London is an
ancient capital of the “sun never sets”, the name of the city Milan, has become
synonymous with “Fashion worldwide”. However, in the history of the fashion industry
before the 1970s, Milan was rarely mentioned. And Milan for a long time was a grey
national industrial city. The great changes of Milan in cultural economy, especially in
the fashion sector are crucial to understand the challenges that today the city is facing,
which is also a good reference for cities in developing countries. China, after a rapid
development based traditionally on resources and environment, in response to the
urban problems, is currently seeking a new development driving force, to achieve
sustainable development and put forward a comprehensive urban transformation in
economic, social, and ecological aspects. The experience of Milan seems to provide us
an advantageous path to promote a new economy in some former industrial cities such
as Shanghai.The research aims at analysing the important role of the fashion economy
in changing the urban space. Case studies of two different types of multi-brand
collection stores were conducted to indicate how multi-brand stores influenced Milan
city as a fashion capital by investigating their history, daily operation, industrial
connections and space shaping.
Case-studies, field investigation and literature review have been the methods
implemented in this research. Literature was extensively used for general information
collection, particularly in cultural economy and reviewing the history of fashion
development. In the investigation process, specifically, qualitative interview was
chosen as the most appropriate tool for this research, which served well in
understanding how things worked. Personal semi-structured interviews were made with
people working in different sectors of the fashion industry, with the aim of gathering
detailed store stories, concept, and information about daily operation, working process,
and their personal ideas in Milan fashion. Naturalistic-observation method was used
in the streets, stores and backstage of the fashion fairs, to discover the real interactions
between different roles in the fashion economy.
A description of spatial recoveries and changing in Milan city center made by fashion
retail is presented in this paper, detailed by the city space changing in the most famous
fashion destrict, quadrilatero della moda (quadrilateral of fashion). As fashion
retailing stores as a kind of intermediaries shows significance in the industrial chain,
two specific multi-brand stores, Biffi and 10 Corso Como, are taken as cases of the
fashion retailing, to discuss in detail their role in the transformation of the urban space.
After a brief introduction of these two stores, the key role of multi-brand store as an
intermediaries in the fashion industry chain is firstly discussed, as it is a bridge between
designers and consumers. The development of Milan fashion industry played an
important role in the use, protection, and renewal of urban space. In particular, the
intermediaries of fashion protect the historical city center, regenerate the abandoned
industrial area, and finally, transform the space functions of Milan from a normal
industrial city to a post-industrial city with exclusive fashion and design economy.
The main result of this work is expressed in the acknowledging that the success of Milan
as a fashion capital has been created in a particular socio-spatial context. The fashion
branding and marketing after the production sections, among the industry chain in
Milan, are the most important reasons for Milan getting the city image of “fashion
capital”. Besides, the fashion retail stores also change the city in materially buildings
and streets, from decoration to structures and functions. All of these elements together
create the reputation of a fashion capital in tourism. The conclusion is that the essence
of Milan becoming a fashion capital is not only a simple combination of all the pieces,
but the close links among all the different elements.