their primary function is to showcase products and the ‘brand values’

Fashion houses thus compete to find ever more spectacular

permanent show spaces. Dolce & Gabbana, for

example, converted a cinema in Viale Piave into a

venue capable of seating over 1000 people.Japanese school uniforms .

headquarters built in 2001, and designed by star architect

Tadao Ando, occupies a former Nestle´ factory

and includes a 3400 m2 showroom (Teatro Armani)

with seating for 682 people. Milan’s Prada has rebuilt

another post-industrial space; and the Florentine firm

Gucci has a large venue at Piazza Oberdan. It is important

to note that as with the promotional events

channel, this channel is not only made up of local

actors. As can be seen in Fig. 1, iconic Parisian designers

such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, Neapolitan tailors Luiggi

Borrelli, and New York shoe designer Stuart Weitzman

have showroom space in Milan. These locational

choices are not supply-side strategies, such the location

of design facilities or production, but demand-side strategies

tailored to particular invited audiences.

For a less select audience, Milan has rows of flagship

stores from most of the world’s most prominent (or

aspiring) design and fashion houses and brands. The

city attracts many international designers eager to etch

their name on the city through the erection of a flagship

store. For instance, in 2005 Amsterdam-based designers

Victor & Rolf opened their first flagship store in a spectacularly

inverted, upside-down style where the floor is

on the ceiling, the ceiling on the floor, etc. Considerable

care is taken with getting the ‘right’ address, architecture,

assistants, etc. Flagship stores are designed as

dramatic statements and are subject to frequent and

expensive refits. Most flagships – for example Boffi’s

labyrinth of architect designed kitchens and bathrooms

– are primarily spectacular showcases for core product

collections. Other Milan flagship stores focus more as

concept stores and are explicit attempts by firms to

increase consumers’ awareness of their brand’s innovativeness

(CONCETTI, 2007). Many big-brand flagships

have begun to look more like department stores since

they collect and showcase all the collected sub-brands,

alliances, and diffusion lines the fashion house sells/

licenses. Thus, the five-storey Armani flagship/city

block includes various clothing lines, but also Armani

cocktails, books, accessories, furniture, cosmetics, perfumes,

chocolate, sushi, a nightclub, flowers, electronics,

etc. Dolce & Gabbana’s flagship includes

clothing, a bar, a spa, and a barber. Whilst all these are

shops, due to high costs and low turnover they are

often loss-leaders and their primary function is to

showcase products and the ‘brand values’ surrounding

them.

Showrooms and flagships act as shop windows for

fashion and design firms, but equally they add to the

profile of the city as a place where diverse high-status

products and actors can be seen. Shop windows are

not the only way fashion and design firms can flag

their presence and leave an imprint on Milan’s landscape.

Direct advertising channels such as billboards,

posters, and signage penetrate seemingly every aspect

of the cityscape (CRONIN, 2006).Sheath wedding gowns ,

  Many of the fashion

conglomerates with a presence in Milan consciously

use the city’s infrastructure and buildings as integral

parts of their marketing and branding strategies.

Without even visiting a shop, ones’ experience of

Milan is inscribed with a clutter of billboards, etc. proclaiming

the importance of fashion to the city. At

Milan’s Linate Airport, visitors are welcomed by a

gigantic lettering atop the terminal building spelling

‘Armani’. 

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