Italian Fashion Executives Tout Chinese Resilience, Take Long-term View

MILAN — In Giorgio Armani’s words, the coronavirus is delivering “a brusque jolt to the fashion system, which often appears to travel on parallel tracks. Instead, we are all humans and it’s good to remember it.” Designers and fashion houses are bracing themselves for a Milan Fashion Week, running Feb. 19 to 24, that will be mainly sans Chinese buyers and press. “We ourselves have invited our employees to limit their trips to the absolute indispensable and to use every possible precaution. We are very close to our Chinese teams and customers,” continued Armani, who is also chairman and chief executive officer of his namesake company, noting that his signature brand and Emporio shows will both be live-streamed for inclusiveness. “The hope naturally is that a vaccine can be found as soon as possible so that it will bring back everything to normality. The beginning of the year has been turbulent, and surely the local business will be impacted. But I must also say that the other markets performed well at the beginning of the year, so there is a certain balance,” said Armani. “Speaking as a man and not as a businessman, I really hope that everything will be solved in

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