Pitti Uomo comes to a close today with the final events wrapping up what is reported to have been another successful year as statistics released by the event’s organisers this morning show a consistent rise in the number of buyers both nationally and internationally.

Amid talks of luxury fashion sales feeling the sting of financial difficulties the numbers told some surprising stories. From nearly all countries within Europe there was a recorded growth rate in double-digit figures including those from Greece and Spain. Northern European countries showed to be the strongest in the buyers market with a 40% average of buyers coming from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland while France accounted for 30%. Unsurprisingly Russian buyers were down by -25% due to it’s prevalent currency issues — the collapse of the value of the ruble, which, over the last few days, has plummeted even further — and the economic crisis the country is experiencing which also caused the Russian Fashion Council to forgo attendance at this year’s Pitti Uomo and have agreed to reconsider a special collaboration in the future, when economic conditions improve.

Pitti Immagine have estimated that as many as 24,000 attendees have attended the four day event at Fortezza da Basso, an increase of 18% from last year.

Speaking to Drapers on the third day of the show, exhibitors reported a higher number of vistors and that buyers were more positive, while also highlighting a rise in the number of British independents in attendance. Speculation amid exhibitors was that this increase could have been influenced in part by the cancellation of the Bread & Butter trade fair’s January edition. Bread & Butter’s founder and CEO Karl-Heinz Müller made the decision in December to cancel the event as it overlapped with Pitti Uomo affecting attendance figures significantly. “The plans that Bread & Butter could not realise in the last seasons (consumer days, Barcelona) have led to a drastic decline in bookings for the event of the upcoming season in January 2015.”

Raffaello Napoleone, chief executive of Pitti Immagine, said:

“A growth in attendance that affects not only the foreign markets, but also – and I want to highlight this – Italy, and this can only make us very happy. No doubt the initial record of exhibitors participating at this edition – nearly 1,200 in total, with more exhibitors also for Pitti W [womenswear section] – was the starting point for the record in the turnout of buyers that we expect at this edition.”