Amid a huge uptick in coronavirus cases, Italy is closing all stores across the country except pharmacies and food shops, the government announced late Wednesday on Facebook live.
The dramatic move is the latest effort to control the spread of coronavirus, which has devastated the country. More than 12,000 cases have now been reported, with more than 800 deaths. Already, the government, which has pledged nearly $30 billion to mitigate the impact of the outbreak, put an extensive lockdown in place with strict travel restrictions that prohibit people from entering and leaving the country.
The Lombardy region, which is home to Milan and Venice and is also a major shoe manufacturing hub, has been hit the hardest — and fashion firms big and small are reeling.
“COVID-19 has inevitably impacted all businesses. It will have a domino effect for the worldwide economy. Our top priority at this time of struggle is everyone’s health, but most of all, we have to be patient and very strong,” Giuseppe Zanotti said this week.
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Many brands are moving fast to develop digital capabilities in an effort to keep orders moving for fall ’20.
“Buyers cancelling fall sales appointments has been a concern so we have created video lookbooks and manuals, and we are doing live video links with buyers instead. We were previously in the early stages of going omnichannel, merging our boutique stock with our e-commerce business, but now we have accelerated that process of stock relocation,” said Arianna Casadei, head of communications for Casadei.
The third generation family member wrote on Instagram today that the Casadei store in Remini, Italy, had closed for the first time since it opened in 1981.
