How Made In Italy Became Unethical

The Takeover Of An Industry

The Chinese have flocked to Italy, setting up their own businesses and factories. Instead of using fine Italian fabrics, they drive down prices by importing far cheaper, poorer quality fabrics from China.

So proliferous is Chinese migration to Italy, there are now more Chinese garment manufacturers than there are Italian textile producers.

The Chinese newcomers are exporting millions of low-cost garments bearing the Made in Italy tag in a seemingly unregulated export drive. They have also notched up increased demand for garment manufacturing in Europe through cost-cutting. But that cost comes with a price.

Almost all the migrant workers in these Chinese owned factories live in horrendous, crowded conditions. They are poorly paid and work longer hours than are legally permitted in the EU. Many of them are in the EU illegally, and thus have no legal rights.

The Temptation Of Cost Cutting

As mentioned above, these Chinese sweatshops are increasing demand for cheaper fashion production. That’s from both luxury and fast fashion manufacturers.

To prove this point, Italian prosecutors recently investigated the local supply chains of two major Italian fashion houses. They found that some costly designer handbags are manufactured by exploited foreign labour brought in by the Chinese.

To illustrate one example, the Wall Street Journal cited court documents showing LVMH subsidiary Dior paid a supplier about $57 to assemble luxury handbags. These same bags retail for $2,780 in shops. Local Chinese suppliers made Giorgio Armani bags for around $100, then resold these to Armani for $270. Armani ultimately placed the bags on retail store shelves for $1945 or more.

Italian Companies Hit, But Nothing Changes

As a result of the Italian investigation, judges in June placed Manufactures Dior SRL—a unit of Dior—under court administration after ruling that its supply chain included Chinese-owned firms in Italy that mistreated migrant workers. The same measure was taken against Armani in April and Alviero Martini, known for its map-print bags and other items.

In a 34-page court order, the court wrote that Italian police in March and April found Chinese workers in “hygiene and health conditions that are below the minimum required by an ethical approach” at Milan-area companies in Dior’s supply chain.

Investigators interviewed workers from one of Armani’s subsidiaries, GA Operations, which hired a number of Chinese-owned subcontractors across Italy. These subcontractors paid migrant workers a few Euros per hour.

While the Italian brands certainly deserve what they got, one looming question remains: why are the Chinese owned sweatshops allowed to get away with mistreating their workers? And how do they get away with importing hordes of illegal migrants?

How Italy Can Get Back In The Game

Now that increasing numbers of customers know that ‘Made in Italy’ is unethical, and now that the quality of Italian goods has dropped due to the fact that traditional European artisans no longer make them, the Italian fashion industry is suffering a hard blow.

While Chinese sweatshops are proliferating Europe unpunished, Italian companies can’t compete on price. It’s high time that prosecutors go after Chinese sweatshops in Italy, not just the brands using them. But bizarrely, they seem reluctant to do so.

Italians have a long history of beauty. It underlies their architecture, clothing, furniture and art. An eye for aesthetics cannot be taught. It cannot be copied. And for now, the only for the Italian fashion industry is for them to focus on their ancient strength: aesthetics and design.