The hoarding and scaffolding are being removed from the new Dirk Bikkembergs store opening in Piazza Cavour, not-quite-the-heart of Milan's shopping district. Workmen continue to hammer and build, but they tell a casual questioner that the store, rather oddly situated at the nether end of Via Manzoni and bordered on two sides by a busy traffic intersection, is on target for a spring debut.

After a dismal winter sales period – many of the “New Year” sales at Milan stores are still going on – this is a vote of confidence in an industry that is looking ever-more grim. Piazza Cavour is on the edge of the quadrilaterale d'oro, a network of streets bounded by Milan's most fashionable roads: Via Manzoni, Via della Spiga, Via Montenapoleone, and Corso Venezia. Whether the square is the ideal location for a new fashion store remains to be seen: the only other store there is an international bookshop.

But with Italy in recession and shoppers keeping a tight grip on their purses and wallets, the increasingly jittery fashion industry needs a boost. In particular, it needs a successful Milan women's wear week, which began on Thursday and runs until Tuesday. Not that all the indicators are pointing down: Versace says it increased its revenues in 2008 by more than 8 per cent to €336m; Diego Della Valle's Tod's group had an “outstanding” year, and he predicts growth in both sales and profits in 2009; and Ferragamo and Ermenegildo Zegna have said they are proceeding with planned store openings this year.