“Three days of business, style and innovation. Three days of the future”. Lineapelle 95th edition, the global business experience in the fashion & luxury industry supply, is due to kick off tomorrow in Milan (it will go on until Thursday 27 September), in the area located at Fieramilano Rho. More than ever, Lineapelle is about to start while defining and reinforcing its peculiar identity as a global event, which will host a number of business and style topics (focused on winter 2019/2020) and will offer relevant tips to depict the next frontiers of the international leather industry. Let’s begin with numbers, as they evidence the market high expectations. Lineapelle95 kicks off tomorrow while achieving two records: firstly, the number of exhibitors, who reached 1,306, +2% compared to October 2017. 808 of them come from Italy (+1%), 498 are foreigners (+3%), coming from 47 different countries. On top of that, the exhibition area, which extends across over 48,500 square metres, +2% compared to last edition. As regards product categories, the fair will host 608 tanners, 484 accessories/components, 162 synthetics/fabrics (in addition to 51 more exhibitors that belong to “other categories”). Let’s move on to contents. To begin with, Lineapelle Innovation Square, “a real inspiration hub where companies may find new ideas and hints to orient their research lines”. On its first edition, it will take place inside Lineapelle95 spaces. “Many presentations are on the agenda. Over 40 representatives of university and educational research, coming from Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany, Israel, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, The United States, are going to take part in the event”. “They will present new methods, ready to be placed on the market, alongside the most relevant accomplishments achieved by researchers that can apply to the world around Lineapelle”. On Tuesday 25 September (at 12.30pm), they will hold the official presentation of a training project: “Exploring Italian Leather Sustainability”, which engaged Lineapelle, UNIC – Concerie Italiane, Gucci and Accademia Costume e Moda (Roma). At 3pm it will start “Walking Naturally, Feel Your Soles”, a seminar led by Consorzio Vero Cuoio di Toscana (at hall 9). On Wednesday 26 September, at 11am (at LEM Ponte dei Mari, beside hall 22), they will talk about leather and communication: “A New Approach: Promoting Leather amongst New Generations” (set by Leather Naturally). At 12 (in the same room) ZDHC are going to update their chemical work in progress while presenting Gateway, the first Global Database for a Safer Chemistry. At 2pm it will take place “European Product Environmental Footprint – A New Challenge for the Leather and Fashion Industry”, an International Congress arranged by UNIC- Concerie Italiane, Cotance, and CNR (in collaboration with the European Commission). In the first two days of the exhibition they will hold, as usual, the traditional fashion presentations: the former, in Italian, is scheduled at 3pm, the latter, in English, is scheduled at 4.30pm (at the Fashion Theatre, hall 15). The breaking news is that Lineapelle95 is going to open, more than ever on this edition, to the municipality of Milan. Firstly, at Villa Reale, Milan, visitors will find, until Friday 28 September, the Italian Leather Cube, an installation to tell about the top quality and sustainability of domestic leather manufacturing, created along with Milan XL (across Milan Fashion Week). Secondly, at Spazio Lineapelle, Palazzo Gorani (close to Milan Stock Exchange), they set the “Leather in Everyday Life” exhibition: décor items, samples of materials and 365 pictures to tell about the relationship between human beings and leather, a material that characterizes “our everyday life, every daily moment, every day”.
