They said/We said: The fashion week feud rages on, with Milan firing back!

Photography by Peter Stigter

You’ve already heard about the kafuffle caused by fashion week scheduling next fall, that timing for MFW is going to overlap with both LFW and PFW. Quelle horror! To make matters much worse, a press release surfaced this morning from the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana in which Milan responds to New York, London, and Paris’ unwillingness to alter their fashion week schedules, and claiming that a written agreement from 2010 had MFW scheduled to take place between the 19th and 25th of September—as per usual—and which they’ve decided they’ll stick to. Dun dun dun…

But here comes the real drama: today’s statement from the Italian board of directors reads: “Such an accuse, in addition to representing an aggressive and arrogant attitude towards CNMI, used unfair argumentation in order to impose—in a unilateral way—not shared decisions. In conclusion, the Board of Directors and the Designers’ Roundtable have unanimously decided to confirm the schedule as it was previously announced on March 17th 2010: [MFW] will be held from Wednesday 19th to Tuesday 25th of September 2012.”

Looks like they are peeved. And we would be too—especially when fashion royalty have sworn their allegiance to New York and London. We’re hoping that there’s no bad blood over this in the end, Anna and Franca stay on good terms, and that the fashion world isn’t split into an East vs. West side-style battle. Stay tuned.

THEY SAID…

Mario Boselli, head of the Chamber of Fashion: “Let the best one win. Italian designers unanimously agreed on the schedule, from the smallest brand to the biggest. They showed great solidarity and Italian pride.” [WWD]

The Cut: “Oh God, it’s a full-blown cris-hiss.” [The Cut]

Fashionista: “Does anyone else feel like this seems more akin to a power struggle between high school’s most popular clique, rather than a matter of conflicting schedules in a major industry?” [Fashionista]

WE SAID…

Susie Sheffman, fashion director: “Them’s fighting words. Someone will have to back down. Let the games begin!”

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