Despite the New York Times' view that many Italian stylists now peddle vulgarity, the nation's fashion groups are predicting steadily rising sales in America in the next few years.
Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tod's and Geox were among the Italian names who were looking confidently at the future as they discussed business prospects in the United States at an Investor Day debate in New York.
Valentino, whose gowns frequently help Hollywood actresses glitter on Oscar night, is aiming to raise turnover from 250 to 400 million in the next four years mainly by developing the group's flagship label.
It is even possible that the group could take over American fashion brands. "We have the know-how to take brands and relaunch them, as we did with Hugo Boss," said Managing Director Stefano Sassi.
Salvatore Ferragamo, the luxury group famed for its shoes, expects double-digit growth in the US for the next three years and plans to open about 15 new boutiques between now and 2010.
Tod's, the footwear group which owns the Hogan and Fay brands, is already posting 11% yearly sales growth. But it wants to capitalise on the US economy's strong growth to raise that to as much as 18% in five years.
The good prospects might surprise some observers since, on the surface of things, relations between the Italian fashion world and America have hardly been idyllic recently.
Cathy Horyn, fashion editor of NYT, went to a Giorgio Armani fashion show in Milan in February and wrote caustically that she would have preferred "not to see jogging pants" on the catwalk.
The designer, whose group is considered by many the flagship of Italian fashion, angrily replied that he had presented 500 skirts and Horyn only wrote about the jogging pants. He said she was now barred from his shows.
The next day the NYT carried a scorching piece attacking Italian fashion in general as vulgar, saying that these days its only goal seemed to be to make women look like "trollops".
Milanese duo Dolce & Gabbana have been singled out by the Americans critics as leaders in a new wave of Italian trash. They were described by one commentator as "mafiosi and vulgar".
Anne Wintour, director of Vogue in America, contributed to the assault by saying Italian fashion needed to "embrace the future" by encouraging a younger generation of stylists.
But if chic New Yorkers are down on Italian fashion, it seems the rest of the world can't get enough of it.
Sales by the top 25 Italian fashion groups grew 12.4% in 2006, reaching 27.3 billion euros, while foreign competitors posted growth that was down from 10.2 to 9.6%. This came on top of strong growth in 2005.
Ironically, among the groups posting the highest increase in sales in 2006 was Dolce & Gabbana, which has now joined seven other Italian fashion groups with global sales of over a billion euros.
