It is Italy’s Belle Époque jewel of fashion, shopping, dining, and culture. Now, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is to be the location of Milan’s upcoming “Olympics of fashion,” aka Vogue World, Anna Wintour revealed today.
Condé Nast’s chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue revealed the location and other fresh details about this year’s Vogue World at a launch hosted by Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala. First, she paid personal tribute to Milan, saying: “Coming to this city a few times a year for the past several decades has been one of the great pleasures of my life. This place — in its history and its refinement, but also in its creativity and warmth — is what the best of fashion is about.”
Announcing the elegant, 50-meter-high arcade, which was completed in 1877, is the event’s location, Wintour said: “We cannot think of a better place for Vogue World to honor everything that is extraordinary about Milan than in this magical space between La Scala and the Duomo.”
The fifth edition of the traveling Vogue event will take place on September 22, on the first day of Milan Fashion Week. “We will celebrate the power of international craft at a time when cultural exchange feels more important than ever,” said Wintour.
Across its four previous editions in New York, London, Paris, and Los Angeles, Vogue World has raised more than $7 million for local charities dedicated to creative education and community support. This year’s edition will generate funds for a tranche of worthy causes in Milan: initiatives supporting local craft, design capability, and cultural preservation. Wintour said: “Vogue is committed to supporting the Municipality of Milan through a dedicated contribution to support cultural initiatives serving the public good.” A committee of Milan-based institutions will advise on beneficiary selection.
Wintour was joined at the announcement in Sala Alessi at Palazzo Marino by Francesca Ragazzi, head of editorial content at Vogue Italia. Lorenzo Bertelli of Prada, Alessandro Michele of Valentino, and the superstar principal dancer at La Scala, Roberto Bolle, also addressed an audience of Italian fashion’s leading lights. These included business leaders such as Diego Della Valle, Renzo Rosso, Remo Ruffini, Gildo Zegna, Carolina Cucinelli, and Frédéric Arnault. Designers in the room included Marco de Vincenzo, Fausto Puglisi, Rocco Iannone, Maximilian Davis, Francesco Risso, Margherita Maccapani Missoni, Sabato De Sarno, and David Koma.
Other guests included the model Bianca Balti, the musical artist Ghali, and Arianna Fontana, who, with 14 medals, is Italy’s most decorated Olympic athlete. After saluting Fontana’s great achievement, Wintour said: “We like to think of Vogue World as something like the Olympics of fashion — a global convening for the best in our field.”
Like the Olympics, Vogue World can only happen through a close partnership with the authorities of its host city. Opening today’s event, Mayor Sala labeled Vogue World a “double honor.” He paid tribute to the direct investment the fashion companies represented in his audience bring into Milan’s economy, and described as a “perfect opportunity” the chance to invest in worthy Milan causes that the funds raised by Vogue World will afford.
Speaking after Wintour, Alessandro Michele described the “emotional space” that fashion occupies within Milan’s sociocultural fabric. He described this year’s Vogue World theme, “Where The Future Is Made By The Hand”, as an opportunity to explore the relationship between Italy’s ancient tradition of fatto a mano human craft, and the potential of AI, a development he likened to the Gutenberg Press.
Prada’s Lorenzo Bertelli also touched on the theme of AI, saying: “When we speak about artificial intelligence or automation, we are not talking about replacing expertise, but about creating better tools. The artisan does not lose centrality because their work cannot be replaced.” Bertelli also described sustainability as a “driver of innovation” in the Italian fashion industry and at Prada Group.