Choosing the perfect location for a runway show is of utmost importance. In the past decade, designers and fashion houses, particularly those owned by powerful luxury conglomerates, have engaged in a silent competition to find the most exclusive venues.
While many opt for grand locations for ready-to-wear runways, the Resort (Cruise) collections offer fashion house clients and esteemed guests (mainly celebrities and influencers as fashion critics and journalists have become a semi-forgotten concept) a movable feast. For these collections, an unusual or exotic destination is essential, always paired with an exclusive venue.
Gucci Cruise 2019 show was held in Alyscamps, an ancient necropolis and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Arles, France. In May 2022, Louis Vuitton showed its 2023 Cruise collection at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, San Diego County, California, designed by US architect Louis Kahn.
Earlier on in June this year, Dior unveiled its Cruise 2025 collection in the gardens of Drummond Castle in Scotland, while Jacquemus recently travelled to Capri, for an exclusive show at Casa Malaparte, complete with soundtrack from Jean-Luc Godard's "Le Mépris" (the film was an inspiration for the designer as it featured the iconic villa).
Managing to book a public space for a show (think Louis Vuitton’s S/S 24 men’s show on Pont Neuf, Paris's oldest bridge, or Vuitton's 2025 Cruise collection at Barcelona's Park Güell) is a special coup: it shows how powerful and influential a brand can be, and how local authorities can be bent to their will with money and the mirage of wealth.
Yet also political powers love to put up a show to display how influential they can be by choosing peculiar locations for international events. The 31st G8 summit was held on 6-8 July 2005 at the Gleneagles Hotel, in Scotland, that guaranteed luxury, quiet and the safety of all the leaders involved.
Sometimes a location can be symbolical: in July 2009, the then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, called the G8 meeting in the finance police headquarters in Coppito, near L'Aquila, to make sure the town, largely destroyed by the April 2009 earthquake, could be used as a setting and a background for photo ops.
The G7 meeting (from today till 15th June) is currently taking place in Borgo Egnazia, in the Puglia region. Despite the name - "borgo" means "village" - this is a not a real village, but a large resort.
Built in five years from 2005 and 2010 in the province of Brindisi, the resort includes three distinct areas, a court, a village, and villas, along with swimming pools, a wellness center and three tennis courts, and can accommodate over 500 people.
Local artisans were employed to recreate the styles of houses and farmhouses from this region, under the guidance of designer Pino Brescia. Prices vary, but four nights in a villa for one person can cost up to €13,000 (you can check further prices on Booking.com to get an idea).
Promotional images on Booking.com, blend classic 5-star hotel views with a rustic Disneyland-like charm.
One image captures three women dressed in local attire, carrying sheaves of wheat and standing next to a vintage vehicle. Not sure if this is an authentic scene at Borgo Egnazia and, as a guest you, will actually get to see this massaie rurali galore, or if this is just a promotional tableau.
Borgo Egnazia is therefore not a real location, but an imaginary place, the physical architectural representation of what an Italian village from the Salento area may look like, but essentially a "non locus". Culturally it is an invention, a fake combination of architecture, traditions and folklore.
The "borgo" is indeed a luxury resort for weddings and parties appreciated by foreign tourists in search of an Italian experience that is not authentic but in which they want to believe. Celebrities like Madonna and Justin Timberlake, stayed here and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (herself a fan of the place for her private holidays) chose it to host the G7 summit.
In a way, the atmosphere of Borgo Egnazia calls to mind last year's Dolce & Gabbana's Alta Moda (Haute Couture) runway in scenic Alberobello, also in the Puglia region. At the show, glamorous guests mingled with locals dressed as peasants. However, Alberobello is an authentic location, and in that occasion the designers blended an architectural reality with theatrical elements. In contrast, Borgo Egnazia offers a theatrical setting with real people.
It is somehow hilarious because the place perfectly mirrors the intentions of the leaders meeting here - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, US President Joe Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and a delegation of African countries.
Numerous critical issues are on the agenda - from the war in Ukraine to the Israel-Gaza conflict, climate change, the results of European elections, and Artificial Intelligence (an AI-generated version of poet Virgil will also welcome the esteemed international guests). Yet, there's a prevailing sense that these debates will likely yield little substantive outcomes. Much like the perfect and pristine yet fake architectures framing these discussions, the proposed solutions and resolutions may appear grand during debates, but their actual impact remains uncertain.
The proof is that there has already been a row over abortion rights: according to diplomats, Italy has demanded to remove reference to "safe and legal abortion" from the final statement of this week's summit (the 2023 G7 communique released after the leaders' summit in Hiroshima, Japan, which hosted the event last year, called for "access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care" and, while the other countries backed them, it was a red line for Meloni, so it is absent from the final text).
There are vague connections with fashion at this G7 that go beyond Ursula von der Leyen and Meloni's "matchy matchy look" (cue - their frankly boring powder pink jackets) and Meloni in her by now trademark excessively fluid and wide palazzo pants, tribute to a Doric column, maybe (View this photo; well, there you go there's another architectural reference here…).
There were indeed fashionable presents - a leather handbag for women, silver cufflinks for men, and ties for the delegations (considering that for the 2017 Taormina G7 Italy spent over €120,000 in scarves and ties as gifts, they may have gone on another expensive shopping spree also in this case...). Besides, guests were also given a special Nutella vase, finest excellency of Italy as you may guess. Not really a Pugliese delicacy, but probably cheaper than the ties (and definitely fitting with the fake location).
The most questionable choice for this G7 remains the ship intended to host 2,500 officers from Italy's various police forces tasked with summit security, which was impounded due to deplorable sanitary conditions. Named Mykonos Magic, it didn't actually have anything "magic" about it, but its hygiene standards called to mind the infamous S.S. Diarrhea, where Mr. Krabs (from the Spongebob Squarepants series) served as head chef.
Intriguing how, while heads of state often detached from reality (Sunak recently stated in an interview that growing up he suffered from deprivations, like not having Sky TV…), can lodge in grand yet artificial resorts to talk about issues that affect real people who end up suffering for their choices (yes, Giorgia, I'm thinking about abortion rights), those tasked with their protection can be relegated to a transient and subpar environment with questionable hygiene (the officers were eventually moved to other locations).
Another liminal space is represented by the location chosen for the international media and broadcasting centre. Situated at the Fiera del Levante Exhibition Centre in Bari, (60-70 km from Borgo Egnazia, depending from the route you choose to get there), it allows journalists to follow the various meetings on big screens. While this setup accommodates thousands of media professionals, it also serves to keep journalists physically distant from the main G7 venue.
Guess all this is just a potent metaphor: much like the venues chosen by fashion houses as temporary spaces for grand events, a fabricated resort, a squalid ship or an exhibition centre are spaces that reflect the precariousness of life, reminding us that decisions affecting the world can be made in secluded luxury, while ordinary people observe from the margins, at times aboard a dirty vessel, but usually in a liminal and transitional space.
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