Tokyo is once more the venue for a truly glamorous occasion: the “Mostra Autonoma Moda Italia” (Autonomous Italian Fashion Show). The event will take place from July 12th to 14th at its traditional location, the Hotel Westin Tokyo, where guests will discover what top Italian fashion has to offer for the Spring/Summer season of 2012.

So what will we be wearing this time next year? To find out, you just need to visit the show and plunge into a world of beautiful floral prints, with colours evoking hot summer nights, complemented by elegant wedge-heeled shoes.

The show has now reached its thirty-ninth edition, and has proved an effective means for cementing the already excellent trade relations between Italy and Japan. For the July event, the Italian Trade Commission has put together a collective of 87 companies representing the cream of Italian fashion.

There will be a variety of accessories on display designed for the typical modern man: ties, handkerchiefs, cufflinks and, above all, scarves. They are aimed at someone who divides his time between business and relaxation, who has a free and easy disposition, but is nevertheless always impeccably dressed. Similarly, the women’s scarves and wraps are designed for an individual interested in fashion who wants her own expressive and ultra-feminine style. There is jewellery in silver or Murano glass, sometimes studded with zircons; brooches which open into brightly coloured flowers, to embellish a jacket or even a beach-robe, and elegant straw hats to offer much-needed protection from the sun.

However the fair is not only about accessories. Trousers are a prominent feature: made of soft silk or cool linen, they are eminently suitable for wearing on hot days. For the office, they can be combined with jackets of the same shade and material, either fitted, square-shouldered or loose hanging. For the evening look, dresses are “blossoming” again: long, stylish and often very low cut.

The Italian textile and clothing industry now employs some 500,000 workers, and of the more than 54,000 businesses currently operating about 55,000 are involved in the production of finished articles of clothing. The manufacturing districts are highly diversified and spread throughout Italy: from Lombardy to Veneto, from Tuscany to the Marche, and even as far as Campania and Puglia. In 2010, Japan represented the main export market for Italian fashion in Asia. However, following the terrible earthquake which devastated many of the important manufacturing regions of the country, economic recovery has been slow. In the first four months of 2011, Japanese exports of goods were down 1.6% on 2010. During the same period, Italy represented the twenty-fifth largest export market for Japan, amounting to 0.8% of total overseas sales, while imports into the country increased slightly (+1%). The “Moda Italia” fair has therefore a certain symbolic significance, in signalling the beginnings of a consumer revival which finally appears possible.