Routes
50th edition
Product development proposals gallery · mood 1
“Spices’ Route”
Product development proposals gallery · mood 2
“Silk Route · Eastbound”
Product development proposals gallery · mood 3
“Silk Route · Westbound”
Product development proposals gallery · mood 4
“Route 66 · Chicago”
Product development proposals gallery · mood 5
“Route 66 · Vintage West”
Product development proposals gallery · mood 6
“Route 66 · The Puritans”
Yarns Gallery
Colour Cards Gallery
The Macrotrends
By Gianni Bologna
For the 50th Filo edition, it is worth to mention how far we have come for more than 25 years, when the ‘bet’ on the launch and the success of an exhibition with a specific and limited focus as yarns for weaving was totally new.
The path has been long and from the very beginning we have been strongly committed on Italian products’ quality (then enlarged to the best products of foreign countries).
Starting from these two mentioned aspects: the TRAVELLED ROAD and PRODUCTS’ QUALITY I thought to dedicate this edition of product development Proposals to those long and fascinating WAYS, to those ROADS always covered by human beings which entered the myth and to a renewed search for some aesthetic harmony, to the concepts of BEAUTY and QUALITY that nowadays is rather difficult to find around us.
During past editions, I have often worked on those ways of dressing which represent a huge part of the market and that ‘overwhelm’ us everywhere and in anytime of our life: the streetwear, the about-turn of flows of creativity (or supposed creativity) and so on.
This time I will do the exact opposite.
In order to celebrate this ‘historic’ 50th Filo edition, I have decided to dedicate the proposals to the concept of harmony and beauty that is more and more difficult and complex to cope with, more and more risky to face considering market’s situation. This beauty which takes its inspiration from the present and from the past and related to which there are many people hoping to see it more spread, at least sometime, along our way.
Carefully thinking about what life shows us every day, this might be utopia; the field of utopia, however, is not always fruitless since there are some seeds which grow even in arid areas and bear fruit. In addition, there is no utopia especially if we consider the last market and background trends’ analyses they bring us to think about different aspect that only few people seem to look at in the appropriate portion: the aspect related to that market sector more and more considerable represented by “senior” consumption.
This consumers’ segment has more income if compared to young and very young segments (almost totally oriented to goods of immediate use and low price goods); in addition, it has a wider experience about products with a higher aesthetic as well as a deeper quality knowledge. This issue is multifaceted and maybe it will be the object of next considerations.
For the time being, we should not forget a strong point that is and has always to be essential: Italian products.
A non-nostalgic product but, as it has been stressed several times, devoted to the search for the novelties on the basis of the great handcrafted know-how and the taste for the “beauty” both typical of this Country.
Let’s then talk about three mythical itineraries: ‘SPICES’ ROUTE’ and ‘SILK ROUTE’ that represented a source of many tales, splendid and imaginary stories, visual and musical art subjects and objects which for centuries have been sitting deep in the DNA of our imagination and then ‘ROUTE 66’ that has always been, for the sake of antonomasia, the ‘cross section’ of America, its habits, customs and myths that forged a large part of our current cultural references.
We start by searching for something belonging to myth, but especially that bring us talking about something that is aesthetically pleasant, something that can be the inspiration for thinking and re-creating some current vision of beauty on the basis of beauties and unique splendours that these old routes gave to people who travelled them centuries ago and who retrace them nowadays.