Abstract
The article presents an analysis of Italian fashion retailing showing its evolution, its main characteristics, and its contemporary strengths and weaknesses.Starting from a theoretical foundation of retail design, the article depicts the main evolutionary trajectories of the Italian system in its articulation of distribution channels and the related innovative approach. This is explained with reference both to mono-brand retail chains, set up by Italian fashion companies and designer brands, which suddenly expanded onto international markets; and to local multi-brand retailers and department stores, still present over the territory. The final section of the article focuses on recent dramatic changes occurring in the retail business thanks to the digital revolution, showing specific criticality conditions but also innovative emerging cases.The evolutionary trajectories traced, peculiar formats presented, and contemporary emerging paradigms are enriched by cases analyzed by literature review, desk research, and field case study research conducted by the author over the last twelve years.
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