All eyes are on the upcoming edition, guided by the real concerns of all its participants.

The excitement for the upcoming Sì Sposaitalia Collezioni – scheduled for 24 to 27 September – is palpable: it marks the re-opening of the entire national and international bridal industry, guided by the values of community.

Sì Sposaitalia Collezioni has launched a focus programme involving the major stakeholders to assess the threats and strengths of the system in the new post-covid world. One major focus is the retail segment, which has been hard hit by the postponement of so many weddings. These focus sessions not only reinforce the sense of community characteristic of the event, but also prepare the ground for new ideas and opportunities.

Players have implemented a variety of strategies, especially in the use of digital tools, even in the process of buying a wedding dress, with a widespread use of social channels to amplify the scenic character of the dress: but while seeing a dress worn by an influencer certainly increases its exclusiveness, this must be accompanied by measures to assure the personalisation of the offering. Many strategies have been used to achieve this, from the use of innovative channels like Tik Tok to the use of agencies specialised in social networks: these may be costly, but they have proved to be essential adaptations to this changed marketplace, so deeply affected by the current shutdown.

But the main resource we have to turn the current situation around is the Made in Italy branding of the majority of the community: a quality which has always made the difference, especially at times of crisis.  This value may be appreciated by retailers, but is less so by brides, who are often more swayed by the imaginary qualities of a dress than its intrinsic ones: this is especially true of younger brides stimulated by social networks, who are generally looking for something different and extroverted, regardless of its manufacturing. It is commonly agreed that this is due to the lack of effective marketing of the excellence of the product, and is why the big name manufacturers, especially abroad, invest a great deal in communications to create consensus among young brides. It is widely hoped that Italian companies will also start to make efforts in this direction, with more effective and more frequent communications. TV programmes dedicated to weddings have shown this to be true: creating preferences is necessarily based on unanimous agreement about contents, which must be properly communicated.

And while it is true that more than 17,000 weddings were postponed in March and April, the focus is now on next year, for which all are very well prepared: frenetic and difficult times lie ahead, without a doubt, but the satisfaction of achieving set targets is now almost within grasp. There is certainly no lack of determination to react effectively to the transitory difficulties we are currently living through: the underlying optimism remains and promises to make the difference.

All this will set the foundations for this September's Si SposaItalia Collezioni which, as always, promises to give a lively overview of the state of the art and offer an incentive for looking forward to the future: everyone agrees that the exhibition is an important occasion for coming together and facing tomorrow with tranquillity.