44th edition

The press conference presenting the 44th edition of FILO, scheduled for 30 September – 1 October 2015, took place today in Milan.
Following the yesterday meeting in Biella, dedicated in the first place to the exhibitors with a description of the product development proposals, FILO road-show focused today on the presentation of objectives and innovations put in place for the 44th International fair of high-end yarns and fibre.

At the press conference in Milan, Paolo Monfermoso, FILO manager, illustrated the features that have made FILO “the reference fair for made in Italy yarns”, addressing, in particular, the projects and initiatives implemented in order to favour a reasoned growth of the event, which in this second half of the year 2015 are realized mainly at international level.

There followed speeches of important guests called to illustrate the specific initiatives for the autumn edition. The various projects which will characterize this FILO edition, which is virtually inspired by Leonardo, contain different professional contributions.

Marinella Loddo, director of the Milan ICE agency, focused on the objectives and methods on which the collaboration between the Agency and FILO are based. Indeed, for many years the ICE Agency has been for FILO a strong, reliable partner.

Gianni Bologna outlined the guidelines of the style trends for the 44th FILO edition, with the invitation to look at the future starting from the concept given by Leonardo da Vinci, and focusing on re-invention and technicality also in the so-called classic sectors, which remain the spearhead of the Italian textile industry.

PierCarla Delpiano, president of the Stelline Foundation, opened doors to Leonardo world, speaking of the show housed in Palazzo delle Stelline which will represent the ideal source of inspiration for all participants in the 44th edition of FILO.

The 44th Edition of FILO will be held at the Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan between 30 September – 1 October 2015.

Biella, 23 June 2015

The press conference for the presentation of the 44th edition of FILO was held today in Biella.

The participants were welcomed by Paolo Monfermoso, FILO manager, who briefly outlined the innovations for the next appointment with FILO scheduled for 30 September – 1 October 2015.

The highlight of the Biellese event, which addressed in particular FILO exhibitors, was a detailed explanation of the product development proposals elaborated by Gianni Bologna, FILO creative and style manager. Indeed, FILO product development proposals are a real work instrument placed at the disposal of the exhibiting companies: they highlight the materials making the yarns, the processes used to produce them and the ways required to obtain the desired effects, while offering evocative images of the finished product.

The proposals for the 44th FILO edition were a call for looking ahead at the future, taking the concept of “future” given by Leonardo da Vinci as a starting point.
And so, no more turnabouts or steps backwards, the fashion system must aim at re-invention, a very driven technicality also in the so-called “classic” sectors, which remain the spearhead of the Italian textile industry. The time has come to identify proposals of textile aspects that may stimulate the offer of new products with an “incorporated future”. Beyond the long, short, very short free circuits, simply starting from the assumption that innovation and creativity are the only motors of the future for the entire textile chain, from fibre to finished garment, in whatever given form may be applied to them,” said Bologna.

FILO product development proposals for the 44th edition are now available online, on the website www.filo.it

The road-show to present the 44th edition of FILO will continue tomorrow in Milan, at the Palazzo delle Stelline (Corso Magenta 61) with the press conference for the journalists and operators of the sector.

Biella, 22 June 2015

If in the last season we spoke of archives and therefore of a historic, experiential base which can and must serve as a starting point for imagining tomorrow’s products, let us now speak about that “Tomorrow”.

And that even if on more counts people insist, and not always wrongly, that we are living flattened in an eternal present, in an era in which haste (or a time without time in which everything rushes about in an unseemly manner) not only prevents us from living the present to the full, but also from reflecting calmly on what is happening within us, and thus from elaborating complex plans.

But it is precisely in the juxtaposition and apparent contradiction of the two terms present/future that an interpretative key may perhaps be found, which can be reassuring and, in some way, constructive for our purposes.

We take the opportunity given to us by the celebrations dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci to focus on the outstanding feature of the Character: its concept of the FUTURE. Or better what we perceive as such but which should have not been as such to him. Its work was the PRESENT of its IMMAGINATION, the moment lived of its never to be equalled CREATIVITY.

In its time the future did not arouse particular fears and evidently hour glasses worked in a more relaxed way than our chronometers. This does not nullify the validity of the belief that even then the best way to conceive and to make the FUTURE was to “create it”, even from nothing.

This could be the message, which proves useful to overcome the years in which the place up for innovation has often been occupied by nostalgic, revisited moments. It is an invitation to look ahead on the base, as we said last season, of our textile past, school of aesthetics and taste difficult to equal. Let us ignore the steps backwards and let us focus on re-invention, very driven technicality and on the so-called “classic” sectors, which remain the spearhead of our textile industry.

We, therefore, believe it opportune to propose some re-thinking of the proposals of textile aspects which might stimulate the offer of new products with an “incorporated future” which causes us to think further ahead. Beyond the long, short, very short free circuits, simply starting from the assumption that innovation and creativity are the only motors of the future for the entire textile chain, from fibre to finished garment, in whatever given form may be applied to them.

Starting from this premise we have tried to update the concept, thinking of some aspects that characterize our present time, which however, in their state of embryo, already can be found in the incredibly precursory works of Leonardo da Vinci.

1. The age of man as a person
2. The age of machines
3. The age of competition as a fight
4.  The age of botanical rarities

The four textile trends

1. The age of man as a person
   Light weights also in reinterpreted classics, in the degree of sheen, in composition and in processing. Natural fibres, regardless of how sophisticated they are, do not hesitate to take advantage of possible hybridization with man made fibers or to serve as base for finishing re-elaborations such as printing or spreading. Geometrical decoration still resists but is a little distorted and at times broken.
2. The age of machines
   Extreme lightness (to take flight) and compactness without hesitations (to resist). Perhaps it is a kind of materialistic, mechanical “contrary” elegance. A general opacity but also very sophisticated work on brightness in reciprocal counterpoint almost to underline the more “sentimental” features of the naturals and those frankly “mattery” ones of the synthetics.
3. The age of competition as a fight
   Physical or only mental armour, real or only from pure imagination for battles, at the same time hyper modern and ancestral, with one eye to the fights of Star Wars and the other to the warriors in the Moghul miniatures. The armour is of resistant, very decorated textile, nothing recalls violence, everything calls to mind a performance of Ariosto where the bloody parts are concealed and leave room for the play.
4. The age of botanical rarities
   Flowers and nature in general as new life companions, decorations to apply both onto jacquard and voile, onto transparent knitwear and feminine georgette and also onto more rustic types destined for agreeable, uninhibited menswear. The flower and lace themes are proposed once again to underline the need to support and celebrate what we unconsciously feel as an ancestral part of ourselves which we risk losing.

Biella, 22 june 2015

It’s time of renewal for FILO, starting from the presentation of the 44th FILO edition.
The traditional press conferences in Biella and Milan, to date identical in focus and involvement, will be now distinguished from one another to give life to a road-show addressing different audiences.

The first stop is in Biella, on 22 June 2015 at 10.30 a.m. at the Unione Industriale Biellese (Via Torino 56) – Valetto room.
This event looks in particular at the exhibitors and focuses on the product development proposals elaborated by Gianni Bologna for the 44th edition of FILO
The presentation will not merely evoke atmospheres and suggestions, it will also provide a more in-depth view on the selection of raw materials, the yarn processing and the effects deriving therefrom. While keeping alive the attention to top quality products, designed and produced to become excellent materials for textiles which celebrate the great traditional know-how of the Italian and European textile-clothing industry.

The most important innovations are, however, to be found in the press conference to be held at the Le Stelline Congress Centre, on 23 June 2015 at 11 a.m, Milan (corso Magenta 61): open to journalists and operators of the sector, it will introduce the very many activities launched by FILO for the second half of 2015, both at national and international level.

These will be exhaustively illustrated by Paolo Monfermoso (FILO manager), while the programme also includes speeches of Marinella Loddo (director of the Milan ICE Agency); Gianni Bologna (style and creative manager of FILO); PierCarla Delpiano (president of Le Stelline Foundation): all of them will contribute to outline the different aspects of the various initiatives on schedule for the autumn edition, which is ideally in “the sign of Leonardo”.

The 44th edition of FILO – scheduled from 30 September to 1 October 2015 at the Le Stelline Congress Centre in Milan, – will see Leonardo da Vinci as its extraordinary “protagonist”: a tribute to a forerunner of genius, source of inspiration for the professionals of the textile – fashion system.

The year 2015 is important for FILO also in terms of an increased internationalization of the event: a challenge that is now actually implemented in FILO participation in Milano Unica China in Shanghai, as the reference exhibition for yarns.
To participate in the presentation to be held in Biella and Milan, please register at the address
www.filo.it/conferenza