— Home Accents Today,
The Macef home accessories trade show will be held Sept. 8-11 in the Fiero Milano exhibition center in Milan, Italy.


The show, one of Europe’s largest, was revamped last year by Giulio Cappellini, art director. This year, Macef reintroduces the Dettagli section to make it more centralized. Designed by Cappellini, the section will cover halls 7, 9 and 11 as well as parts of halls 5 and 6.

“This centralized position is designed in view of ensuring an even closer continuity between the traditional Macef layout, based on product-specific visiting routes, and the new halls conceived for high-end specialized retail,” said Paolo Taverna, general manager of Fiera Milano International.

A new Web site was launched recently to answer questions of exhibitors and attendees. The slogan created to promote the Macef Web site, http://www.mymacef.it/, is “less paperwork and more communication.” The portal debuted during the first week of June in Italian and English, with French, Spanish and German versions added since. The site provides punctual answers to the most frequently asked questions It also provides the opportunity to update product information and news in real time.

The events scheduled at the fair confirm the focus of Macef providing its audience with information, suggestions and useful hints. These include Six Signature Stories, which match several young but established designers with six industrial districts.

“The first edition of the project — whose outcome will be on display at the fair –- generated excellent results in terms of interesting ideas, as well as products, some of which are already being manufactured by the local companies that took the challenge,” said Marco Migliari, who supervised the initiative.

Another new project features top-end textile products under two crystal domes in the center of Dettagli hall.

Held since 1964, Macef is an international show that draws awareness to Italian manufacturing which includes home furnishings, textiles, gifts, tableware, fashion accessories and jewelry. The Sept. 8-11 show is expected to draw about 2,000 exhibitors and an estimated 70,000 visitors.