The fairgrounds and its exhibitors: 100 years together

When the Milan Fair was established in 1920, the objective was to showcase all the latest in industry from leading Italian and international manufacturers, while giving space to emerging businesses within its pavilions.

“The fair plays the key role of a Milan at the centre of the regional and European market, not only as an industrial city, but also as a fulcrum of know-how in advertising and for the sharing of information, and as an exhibition centre for new developments, innovation, and progress.”

In other words, the Milan Fair was a synonym of visibility and success for the Italian brands that exhibited their products there, representing a launch pad towards new heights of fame in the international arena.

While the year 2020 was one of celebration for Fiera di Milano, marking its first 100 years of business, for a number of the companies that exhibited at the Milan Fair over the decades, that same major milestone was reached in 2021—an accomplishment that has a lot to tell us about the story of Made in Italy manufacturing.

In the 1920s, the Italian government adopted a new economic development programme to promote the country’s economic independence from other nations.

It was within that policy framework that new small and medium enterprises emerged, taking their place alongside established giants in the production and distribution of raw materials. Specialized in finished goods, those enterprises represented the Italy that would be, creators of timeless food, fashion, and design icons that still today live on in the collective imagination of the country.

For companies such as Alemagna, Moto Guzzi, and Alessi, the Milan Fair was a golden opportunity to launch their latest products and showcase the ever-green favourites loved by all.

If anything is more genuinely Milanese than the Milan Fair, it can only be the panettone. Over the decades, the Milan Fair was a major promoter of the manufacturers of this delicious Milanese treat and quintessential Christmas cake, loved by young and old alike.

Although the origins of the recipe of this Lombard classic have been lost in the mists of legend, what is sure is that one of the oldest makers of the cake was founded by Giacomo Alemagna in the town of Melegnano, all the way back in 1921.

However, Mr Alemagna not only took over the recipe of panettone, he also borrowed the image of Milan’s cathedral, stylizing it to become the celebrated logo on the packaging of his products, a symbol of the company’s ever-lasting physical and sentimental bond with Lombardy’s capital city.

A bond that clearly comes through in archive photographs held by the Fondazione Fiera Milano, which show how the company and its advertisements were regulars at the fair for decades.

Ever since Medieval times, the rich mineral deposits and water resources found in the border zones between Piedmont and Lombardy formed a natural setting for the development of foundries and the metalworking industry. The same area was also home to a strong craft tradition in woodworking, typical of both the Strona Valley and the area around Lake Orta.

It was in this region, specifically in Omegna, that the brothers Giovanni and Carlo Alessi set up their family company in 1921. Originally a metalworking shop, the postwar years ushered in a period of sweeping transformation for the company, which would lead Alessi to be celebrated by all as the “dream factory” of Italian design, specialized in the production of homewares conceived by top designers in the sector and crafted primarily from stainless steel.

“The Milan Fair attracted architects, industrial designers, business people, and advertising men.
The preparations for each annual event were very elaborate and the results often quite spectacular. Millions of visitors would come to see extraordinary exhibitions and buildings designed by the most renowned Italian architects. All that remains today of those wonderful edifices are photographs.”

Industrial design, however, was not just about homewares and furniture. Italian design is especially renowned both domestically and worldwide for the heights it has reached in the automobile and motorcycle sectors.

For one leading motorcycle maker, that tradition goes back to 1921, when Carlo Guzzi and Giorgio Parodi set up Moto Guzzi. In its first one hundred years of business, Moto Guzzi has produced over fifty motorbike models, many of which were designed and crafted on the shores of Lake Como to then be unveiled to the public at the Milan Fair.

For these manufacturers, the Milan Fair was a fundamental spring board for transforming small provincial companies—often family owned and run—into global ambassadors of award-winning Italian design.

“The Milan Fair lent itself to technological innovation and, indeed, it was there that the first television images were broadcast in Italy.”

While the General Electric Power Company—known more simply in Italy by the Italian acronym CGE—was the Italian division of the US industrial group General Electric, it was Italcable—child of the insightful businessman Giovanni Caroglio—that was the national licensee for international telecommunications services to and from Italy.

Both established exactly one hundred years ago, the companies are the only two featured here that are no longer in business (CGE closed in 1978, Italcable in 1994) and which produced goods and services for both the civilian and military sectors.

CGE was renowned for its Audioletta and Consoletta radio sets, whereas Italcable is remembered for its radio broadcasting towers for public telegraph and telephone services, which put Italy in contact with the United States and South American countries. The services were the first of their kind in the mid-1920s.

These two Italian pioneers electrified the exhibition halls of the Milan Fair with their sleek, seductive gadgets—such as the stylish, if somewhat curious, portable television sets with long thin antenna, tuned into Rai broadcasts to entertain visitors—and monumental installations featuring things such as electrical insulators and alternators, which gave an idea of the human dimension in technological innovation.

And just like that, between 1921 and 2021, one hundred years have gone by.
A century spent together, with the Milan Fair setting the stage, but also playing Mother Hen to all the companies that brought it pavilions to life over the years—grooming them to fledge under its wing and then proudly watching them soar to world heights as celebrated Made in Italy brands.

What has changed over the decades? Little, it would appear. Fiera di Milano continues to be a force, a magnet for businesses and opportunities, a space for companies to shine brightly every year. But Fiera di Milano is more than just a fairground. Today it boasts an archive spanning a hundred years, telling its own story and the stories of all those who have been by its side along the road to this first great milestone.