Italian style was in the limelight for three days in Tokyo. The 52nd edition of “Italian Fashion” and 62nd edition of “Shoes from Italy” took place at the BelleSalle Shibuya Garden in the centre of Tokyo between 6 and 9 February, with 147 companies presenting their clothes, fur, leather and shoe collections for the 2018-19 Autumn-Winter season. Business dealers from Taiwan, South Korea and Australia also attended the event, along with trade analysts from the respective Italian Trade Agency (ICE) offices.
The Italian Ambassador to Tokyo, Giorgio Starace said: “In addition to the big brands, we would also like our small and medium-sized enterprises in the fashion industry to be promoted at this fair, along with niche products. There are many opportunities available thanks to the significant recovery of the Japanese economy, the 2020 Summer Olympics and the ever-increasing number of tourists to this country. The event forms part of a broader strategy to consolidate the position of Italian fashion companies in Japan, partly also to draw maximum benefit from the expected coming into force of the free trade agreement between the European Union and Japan”.
Italy is Japan’s sixth-largest clothing exporting country after China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Cambodia. However, Italy comes second in leather fashionwear after China with a 22.7% import share, the same as its share for fur. Italy takes first place in the leather shoe sector: in the first eleven months of 2017 the leather shoe import share amounted to 28.3%.
