PITTI IMMAGINE BIMBO. Florence, Fortezza da Basso.

The 65th edition of Pitti Bimbo (Florence, 29th June– 1st July 2007) has closed with very positive results: in the more than 500 stands in the Fortezza da Basso, exhibitors expressed their great satisfaction with the quality and quantity of visitors, the clarity of the exhibition and the impetus, in terms of promotion and image, provided by the catwalk shows and the many other scheduled events.  
The figures portray a Pitti Bimbo which, over the three days of the event, brought a total of 8,189 visitors to Florence, an increase of 3.5% with respect to the 7,916 at the last summer edition in June 2006).  There were 5,020 Italian buyers (+ 3.8% vs. 4,838 in June 2006), and 3,169 foreign buyers (versus 3,078 at the last summer edition, a rise of 3%), heralding from – and this is a new record – almost 100 countries from every continent.
Looking in more detail at the foreign markets, there were excellent performances from Spain (+ 27.2%, the event’s number one foreign market), and the United States (+ 25%). There were double figure increases for Eastern bloc countries represented by Russia (+ 33%), Poland (+ 66.7%), Ukraine and Latvia, as well as good results for Croatia, Slovenia, Denmark and Israel.  However, there were also some absentees amongst the Arab and Chinese buyers.

“This edition clearly demonstrates the excellent trend of junior fashion”, commented Raffaello Napoleone, managing director of Pitti Immagine. “This was the textiles-fashion sector that registered the best results in 2006, also thanks to the consistent growth in domestic consumption, as confirmed by the high number of Italian buyers present at the Fortezza da Basso.  Around the stands, all the exhibitors told us that they had been able to make very good commercial contacts.  Similarly, we also noticed an increased level of satisfaction amongst the buyers with regard to the high level of the collections viewed, as well as the quality of the presentations made by the companies.  The same can be said for the calendar of events and the catwalk shows, which have become an unmissable feature for the press and operators attending from all over the world. The three days of Pitti Bimbo have now become a regular miniature fashion week, transforming the Fortezza da Basso, and the whole city of Florence, into the world capital of kids’ fashion”.          

Spain confirmed its place at the top of the league table (458 vs. 360 in June 2006), followed by Germany (337 vs. 350), Greece (233 vs. 250, France (198 vs. 201), Russia (165 vs. 124), Holland (159 vs. 155), the United Kingdom (155 vs. 198), Japan (124 vs. 124), Belgium (114 vs. 114), the United States (105 vs. 84), Turkey (93 vs. 116), Switzerland (72 vs. 76), Israel (61 vs. 52) and Portugal (53 vs. 57).
    
To conclude, we should mention the success of the charity project realized by Style, the Corriere della Sera magazine, in collaboration with Pitti Immagine Bimbo: a book “Le Favole del 7° piano”, a collection of children’s stories by top Italian writers from Rcs, and a photographic exhibition about the world of children realized by Costantino Ruspali.  In fact, more than 50,000 Euros were collected during the event for the 7th floor pediatric wing of the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan.