With the Fall Winter 2025 edition of Milan Fashion Week Women’s Collection boasting a calendar of 160 fashion shows, presentations and events, the event is a powerful economic engine, attracting thousands of people to the city each season and generating a strong impact on the fashion industry by getting the world’s top designers, retailers, stylists, celebrities and journalists under one roof.

Milan Fashion Week is a springboard for new collections, helping to generate interest and demand for luxury apparel and accessories; the event helps fashion brands to establish relationships with new consumers and subsequently increase sales as retailers and consumers from all over the world attend fashion weeks. 

Milan Fashion Week 2025: Importance in a volatile industry

Renowned for its combination of Italian artisanal expertise and cutting-edge creativity, Milan Fashion Week unveils new ready-to-wear collections. This season, iconic brands Prada, Gucci, Maison Margiela, Diesel, Antonio Marras, Jil Sander and Versace take center stage alongside emerging designers. The air is electric—historic palazzos reflect old-world grandeur, while luxury venues set the stage for modern fashion, making every moment in Milan a sensory feast.

This is quite significant in a volatile luxury fashion industry, which continues to witness executive and design shake-up at the top fashion companies, as they grapple to secure their financial and creative footing amidst an industry strife with global economic uncertainties. Per Bain & Company, “Global luxury consumers, grappling with macroeconomic uncertainty and continued price elevation by brands, cut back slightly on discretionary items.”

Milan Fashion Week is a lifeline for many luxury brands this season. Gucci showcased its autumn winter 2025 collection at Milan Fashion Week despite the exit of creative director Sabato De Sarno; Jil Sander Creative directors Luke and Lucy Meier stepped down right after the showing; and Lorenzo Serafini unveils his debut collection for Alberta Ferretti, even as parent company Aeffe undergoes reorganisation. Following the exit of John Galliano, Glenn Martens was named creative director of Maison Margiela, and he continued to design Diesel, which showcased its autumn winter 2025 collection on Wednesday. 

Salvatore Ferragamo recently revealed that CEO Marco Gobbetti was stepping down in March. While the Florence-based luxury brand is selecting a successor, chairman Leonardo Ferragamo will assume executive powers. But even amid the turmoil, 2025 is also a year of major celebrations for several leading brands, from Fendi’s centenary to Giorgio Armani’s 50th year and 30 years of Dsquared2.

Milan Fashion Week is not just about showcasing runway collections. Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana inaugurated the Fashion Hub this season. Open to the public, and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Italian Trade Agency, it provides invaluable opportunities for the new generation of fashion designers, with a focus on globalisation. Projects include Designers for the Planet, Ensemble: Voices of Seoul, Go-Mongolia, MFW Forward, Educational Talks, and Cross-Cultural Business Conversations and talks range from implementation of AI to sustainability practices.

Per Fortune, ‘the body’s president, Carlo Capasa, said earlier this month that the week of shows, buying, and networking demonstrated the sector’s willingness “to address the complexity of the moment the sector is facing. Creativity, pragmatism, and flexibility will help the sector confront such a challenging moment,” he told a press conference, with efforts needed to boost innovation and strengthen Italy’s supply chain.’

The economic impact of Milan Fashion Week over the years 

The showings, exhibitions, and meetings attract people from all over the world, And these people need a good hotel, restaurants and nightclubs during the week. The Milan hospitality industry highly benefits from the high influx of people during fashion week as international guests generate an important economic impact on the city of Milan with their arrival.

“Fashion Week is an opportunity to appreciate Milan as a city of art, culture and leisure. It is a moment of strong attraction that contributes decisively to Milan’s international standing, from the point of view of economic and cultural relations” Valeria Gerli, board member of the Milan Monza Brianza Lodi Chamber of Commerce, tells a newspaper in Milan. 

This is reflected in the report by Exclusive Residences Observatory by Tirelli & Partners, where Milan’s luxury real estate sector is exhibiting exceptional resilience. “The prestigious Quadrilatero district has achieved unprecedented valuations, reaching €37,000 per square meter in 2024—representing a remarkable 40 percent appreciation since 2020. This trajectory has solidified Milan’s position as a premier destination for global real estate investment”.

Per the data, “the entry-level luxury segment anticipates stable transaction volume, potentially catalysed by favourable interest rates and robust equity markets. The ultra-luxury segment is positioned for continued growth, driven by international demand…”

“Milan Fashion Week has a positive impact on the real estate market in terms of both prices and demand… for example, there has been a 4-8 percent increase to coincide with Fashion Week. In the second case, on the other hand, Milan Fashion Week generates additional demand for real estate, both for buying and renting,” Luxury Real Estate Advisor Ilaria writes on linkedin. 

History of Milan Fashion Week

Milan Fashion Week. established in 1958 and partially organised by non-profit association Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, has a packed schedule of runway shows, including the world’s leading luxury fashion brands, keeping the fashion editors, retailers and loyal consumers riveted. The autumn-winter fashion shows are held in February-March each year and spring-summer fashion shows in September-October.

For many centuries, fashion in Italy existed on a regional scale with different cities specialising in their own textile crafts, fabrics and luxury goods. Per Glam Observer: “Before Milan became Italy’s fashion capital the country’s fashion scene emerged at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence with the runway organised in 1951 by the Italian aristocrat Giovanni Battista Giorgini who held fashion shows at his own residence with designs from Emilio Pucci and Fontana sisters, and then at Sala Bianco in Palazzo Pitti. For the first time, Italy received buyers from major American retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman.”

In 1958, the non-profit Camera Nazionale della Moda Italia came into being with a vision of promoting and protecting design talent. And Milan Fashion Week made its debut. Per Vogue: “Over the intervening decades more and more Italian brands came to the fore, with an emphasis on slightly more affordable luxury than their Parisian counterparts- as well as a knack for inventive textiles production- as exemplified by Etro and Missoni. As different cities continued to vie for the attention of the press and buyers.. Milan’s status grew.”

During the Seventies and Eighties Milan-based fashion designers including Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace became popular, going a long way towards cementing the region’s status as a fashion capital. Towards the end of the twentieth century iconic fashion designers including Moschino, Dolce and Gabbana, Miuccia Prada, Versace and Gucci dominated luxury fashion.

Per Vogue: “In Milan, the topic of succession persists. Many of the biggest houses have been family-owned, but luxury’s globalisation and a rethink of creative disciplines has led several companies to sell ownership stakes to conglomerates or become publicly listed to survive.”