cities. The scale of these fairs
attracts considerable
numbers of visitors, supporting
an extensive business
visitor industry. Moreover, to
accommodate them,
large areas of the city have been
given over to design
events. The new exhibition area
east of the city centre
replaces the old site located in
the north-west suburbs.
Designed by Massimiliano Fuksas
the new exhibition
site Rho-Pero was one the largest
development projects
in Italy: at a cost of E750 million, it covers 2 million
m2
with 530 000 m2 of floor space. The site likens
to a
self-contained city with hotels,
shopping mall, police
station, chapel, mosque,
restaurants, cafe´s, and metro
and mainline high-speed train
stations. The old exhibition
complex in the city centre is to
be redeveloped into
the ‘CityLife’ district that will
accommodate smaller
exhibitions and encompass
residential high-rises
designed by a roll-call of ‘star’
architects. Literally to
accommodate the fair, large parts
of the city and its
infrastructure have been redrawn
by a coalition of city
and regional authorities, the
fair organizers, and
private-sector developers.
Fairs and fashion shows are
primarily strategic promotional
actions organized and arranged by
different
and competing private sector
actors. This variety
explains why these channels are
tuned towards an
equally disparate set of
audiences spread out over the
entire globe. However, whilst
Prada often aims at a
very different audience to
Armani, one constant in
the message is the presence of
the city as an active participant
and backdrop to fashion and
design branding.
When these narratives work
properly they create a
kind of ‘monopoly rent’ attached
to products designed
in Milan: they may be imitated,
but only as imperfect
substitutes since the ‘origins’
of the product are integral
to its value and appeal. Seen
from the perspective of stakeholders
in the city of Milan, this dense
concentration
of promotional events is both an
important business in
its own right as well as
constituting a set of interlinked
stories, images, and narratives
on the city. What these
narratives and images share is
their role in continuously
and episodically re-establishing
and broadcasting the tale
of Milan as a fashion world city.
Spokespersons
and patrons
Whilst there may be limited evidence of a controlling
cabal in the event-based brand channel, a second
channel functions around the pronouncements and
896
Johan
Jansson and Dominic Power
communicative actions of a small but vocal group of
spokespeople and patrons who have vested interests in
Milan’s role as a fashion and design capital. In recent
decades such cities have become closely associated
with, and valued on the basis of, their star designers
and industry power-brokers.Sheath wedding gowns ,
In fashion and design the
use of spokespeople is most obvious in the multiple
roles that the ‘designer’ plays.Japanese school uniforms .
not only the creative talent behind product ranges, but
also the figurehead for the organization. There is a
widespread public acceptance, and valorization, of the
role of ‘creative geniuses’ (SANTAGATA, 2004) in
fashion and design and as such these often extravagant,
eccentric, and media-hungry personalities almost
constitute brand channels in their own right.
没有评论:
发表评论