| Abstract: |
Since at least a decade, Barcelona is on the world map of fashion: Antonio
Mirò, Mango, Desigual, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada are famous Barcelona-based
stylists teaming up with other large Spanish fashion firms, like Zara, and
commercial outlets, like El Corte Ingles, to attract a large interest on local
fashion and fashion-based events. Thus, Barcelona has become a straightforward
“shopping destination” for millions of international visitors, developing a
shopping-related image, various specialised “fashion clusters” for different
market targets, and a number of fashion-related events attracting both
professionals and a dedicated general audience, like the 080 Barcelona and
Bread & Butter. Barcelona’s liberal and leisure-related image can be easily
associated with fashion, so if the national capital Madrid retains its role of
business capital of the country even in relation to fashion, Barcelona could
be considered the emergent “catwalk” of the Mediterranean, challenging other
fashion capitals of Europe like Milan and Paris. The article analyses the
urban strategy to foster the fashion industry in Barcelona through a
redefinition of the “soft” factors establishing the substance of a fashion
capital: image, place qualities, events, connectedness and social
embeddedness. Tourism, unsurprisingly, is an important component of such
strategy. The growth of Barcelona to the stardom of international leisure and
cultural tourism is mostly about the “liminal” nature and the
symbolically-charged activities of visitors that can be easily extended to
fashion and fashion buying behaviour. Through a number of interviews and the
analysis of strategy documents and reports, the authors unravel this
relationship and assess the effectiveness of this strategy face to other
factors playing against a more enduring rooting of fashion industries in the
city, like the volatility of the sector, the insufficient international
connectedness of the city and its business orientation, and the reorientation
of the tourist supply towards low-cost visitors segments. |