Menswear runs on a tight, concentrated calendar, which means that menswear brand directors can have jam-packed business trips. They might spend the morning reviewing a collection, the afternoon moving between buyer meetings and the evening at a presentation, knowing the same schedule starts again in another city the following day.
During international tours, proper travel planning is essential. The best travel option isn’t simply about the most comfortable way to get from one place to another, but about working around the calendar rather than forcing the calendar to work around it.
When the Fashion Calendar Sets the Itinerary
Major menswear events tend to arrive in quick succession. Pitti Uomo brings the industry to Florence before attention shifts to Milan and Paris, while showroom appointments and store launches can add further stops around the headline events.
Commercial flights make sense when a route has frequent departures and the schedule leaves enough room for fixed departure times. Brand directors could also use the rail network to travel between certain European cities.
But when the itinerary becomes more complicated, so do the travel plans. If a showroom appointment runs late or an important buyer becomes available unexpectedly, a fixed departure can suddenly dictate the rest of the day. Here, it may make more sense to book private jet travel.
When planning a business trip, it makes more sense to look at each leg individually rather than choosing one way to travel for the entire tour.
Looking Beyond the Ticket Price
Corporate travel budgets obviously matter, but comparing options purely by fare doesn’t show the full impact of a journey on a working tour.
It may seem cheaper to purchase a commercial plane ticket that involves a connecting flight and a long transfer. But if it takes a large portion of the day away from meetings, it can cost the company in other ways.
This cost increases when several members of the same team are travelling together. More plane tickets, transfer fare and missed hours all add up.
This is why some fashion businesses choose to charter a private jet for particular legs. Charter arrangements can be built around the required departure time and destination, allowing the travel plan to follow the working schedule more closely.
A direct commercial service may work perfectly for one journey, while a charter may be more practical when the next stop has limited scheduled connections.
Florence Creates a Different Travel Problem
Pitti Uomo brings buyers, designers, editors and brands together at the Fortezza da Basso. For directors travelling onwards after the event, the next stage of the journey has to account for Florence’s more limited air connections compared with larger European hubs.
A director may finish a showroom appointment in the late afternoon but need to be elsewhere that evening ahead of an early meeting. Private aviation provides another routing option because departure times can be arranged around the itinerary.
But timing isn’t the only consideration. A director is often travelling as part of a wider brand team, and that changes what a practical journey looks like.
When the Collection Travels Too
A menswear tour isn’t always a case of one executive travelling with a laptop and an overnight bag.
Depending on the trip, directors may be accompanied by sales or PR colleagues. They may have sample pieces, look books or presentation materials with them. Everyone may also need to arrive at the next destination together before heading directly to a showroom, fitting or meeting.
A route that looks straightforward for an individual traveller can therefore become less convenient for the group. Keeping the team on the same itinerary can simplify transfers and make it easier to move directly from one commitment to the next.
Once the tour extends beyond the headline fashion events, those practical considerations become even more important.
Not Every Important Stop Is a Fashion Capital
Florence, Milan and Paris may provide the backbone of a European menswear tour, but the work surrounding a collection can take directors elsewhere. Often the meetings take place in northern smaller Italian cities, for example the shoe industry is located in town around Venice.
As specialist menswear manufacturer may be based outside a major city a quick connection to the production is important. Meetings with suppliers, mills or production partners can also require travel beyond the established fashion-week circuit, where scheduled connections may be less convenient for menswear brand directors.
Rather than treating those visits as awkward additions to an existing route, they can be considered when the itinerary is first built. This makes it easier to see which journeys work well by scheduled air or rail and where a more flexible routing makes sense.
By this point, the question isn’t really which form of travel is best overall. It’s how each journey fits into the tour around it.
Building Travel Around the Tour
The most practical approach for menswear brand directors is to start with the commitments that cannot move, like runway presentations, confirmed buyer meetings, store launches and showroom appointments. Travel can then fit around those commitments. However, this travel demand can happen even during the fashion week season, Milan and Paris Fashion Week are both important hubs for the industry. Even if your brand is not showing throughout the season these are moments for important meetings and quick visits to the factories around.
Commercial aviation or rail will be the best choice for some journeys, but others may call for private charter because of the departure time, destination or number of people travelling together. Looking at those options together gives brand directors more room to build a workable multi-city schedule.
Finally, a fashion director who leaves Florence at dawn to make a 2pm buyer meeting in Paris can’t rely on luck. For this to work, the travel plan needs to be built around their schedule, taking potential delays into consideration.
For executive meetings, the best approach is to solve it leg by leg instead of picking one way to travel for the whole trip
