WWDMADEINITALY

The Artisan TouchHand-painted patterns are among the many design elements that distinguish the “Made in Italy” brand.

An Etro artist paints a paisley design.

E-COMMERCE UPDATE

GOING GREEN

BEAUTY’S BEST INGREDIENTSEXPO 2015

SECTION II

ITALIAN FOOTWEAR EXPORTS, JANUARY TO APRIL 2014:82,973 pairs of shoes, or $3.68 billion

France is the biggest importer of Italian shoes with $603.8 million. China ranks 12th in imports

of Italian shoes at $78 million. Leather remains the core material

in terms of exports with a value totaling $2.96 billion.

$172.3 MILLION: Exports of Italian textiles and home furnishings, 2013.

$314.9 MILLION: Imports of textiles and home furnishings to Italy, 2013. Source: Sistema Moda Italia

$2.74 BILLION: Export value of Italian bags and accessories, up 1.8 percent in volume and 5 percent in value, between January and April. Source: Italian leather goods association AIMPES

MADE IN ITALY’S global awareness also rests on the country’s worldwide standing in furniture, industrial and automotive design. To wit, the world’s most influential furniture and design show, the international Salone del Mobile, is held in Milan each April, drawing more than 350,000 visitors.

The furniture business worldwide is thriving: According to a report by Csil, Italy’s organization for light in-dustry, the furniture market doubled in the 10 years between 2003 and 2013, with sales reaching $436 billion. Csil said in its latest report, presented

during April’s Salone, that much of the growth has come from emerging markets, China in particular, which now represent 47 percent of consum-ers of interior design.

Over the past decade, demand from countries including Brazil, India, Russia and Turkey has grown.

Among Italy’s best-known design offerings, the Moka pot, designed by Alfonso Bialetti, has been only slight-ly altered since its original release in 1933. The Fiat 500 has been revamped with a modern look and has become an international success, and the ev-ergreen Piaggio Vespa and Ferrari have always stood for sleek, luxurious and innovative automotive design.

Poltrona Frau, Driade, Kartell, Cappellini, Cassina Alessi and Bisazza are among the Italian compa-nies that have continued to keep the country’s aesthetic at the forefront of international commercial design.

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RESHORINGReshoring is the act of moving manufacturing back to its original country. Here is the percentage of Italian companies surveyed that cited the following reasons to bring manufacturing back to Italy:

29% 26% 18% 15% 10% 2% Source: Anie

REDUCTION IN TAX WAGES

SIMPLIFIES THE BUREAUCRATIC PROCESS

TAX EXEMPTION FOR PROFITS REINVESTED IN R&D

REDUCTION IN ENERGY COSTS

GREATER PROTECTION OF THE “MADE IN ITALY” BRAND

OTHER

WWD MADE IN ITALY

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STATS

Poltrona Frau Dezza couch, designed in 1965.

M Missoni wedge slip-ons from resort 2015.

— Compiled by Eleanora Molesti

Italian Design Industrial Fronton the

Furniture, vehicles, housewares — they’re all part of Italy’s design mojo. By Luisa Zargani

ITALIAN BEAUTY AND COSMETICS EXPORTS, 2013:$4.1 billion, up 11 percent from 2012

Eau de toilettes and colognes are the core exports in the industry, totaling $723.5 million. France was the biggest importer of

Italian beauty and cosmetics for a value of $479.5 million, up 17.9 percent from 2012. Italy’s Lombardy region has the highest

density of beauty and cosmetics companies, with 52.2 percent of the nation’s total.

Source: Cosmetica Italia

Source: Assocalzaturifici

1963 Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta Scaglietti.

1957 Fiat 500.

Piaggio Vespa LX125

Bialetti Moka Express stovetop espresso maker by Alfonso Bialetti.

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WHEN THE ECONOMY gets tough, the tough get better.

In the face of adversity, Italian firms are adjusting ev-erything from supply-chain management to sourcing to marketing strategies to provide compelling stories to go along with high-quality products.

“The world expects special products from Italy; it’s an in-creasingly stronger issue, and, more and more, there is a re-quest for special products,” said Brunello Cucinelli.

Armando Branchini, dep-uty chairman at Milan-based consultancy InterCorporate, added, “The crisis has trig-gered development and en-trepreneurial strategies to be-come more efficient, with an eye on long-term and stable production structures,” he said. “It has also freed up more resources and opportunities.”

To wit, manufacturing is being meticulously planned and companies are reorganizing to develop globally, channeling their efforts on expanding busi-ness outside of Italy, as exports provide a most welcome outlet in a sluggish local economy.

The cost of labor per unit of product has shot up in countries once favored for outsourcing, mainly China, and the costs of transporta-tion have skyrocketed, said Branchini, resulting in manu-facturing returning home.

“We are only speaking of midtier Italian firms,” he un-derscored, also noting that, as the crisis caused hundreds of small and medium-size family companies to close down, ma-chines and workers are avail-able for reallocation.

Prada and Tod’s are ampng the many fashion companies in-vesting in the expansion of their production facilities in Italy.

Aside from ethical and qual-ity considerations, manufactur-ing outside Italy, especially in Asia, is limiting as it focuses on big volumes and a small num-ber of models. That results in “rigidity in reaction to timing in a market that is so fast,” said Patrizio di Marco, president and chief executive officer of Gucci and a firm supporter of Made in Italy production.

When di Marco joined Gucci in 2009, following the Lehman Brothers crisis that sent world economies into a tailspin, he reassessed the supply chain with the goal of enhancing the brand’s leather content. Gucci inked a deal with the unions,

and the company takes respon-sibility to certify all aspects of its pipeline, even subsuppliers.

“It is a major deal for us. We conduct more than 2,000 [inde-pendent] inspections,” said di Marco. “This is a moral obliga-tion, which is in line with our solid presence in the territory.”

This position runs even deeper, as Gucci has been signing joint ventures with its best suppliers.

“We are fine-tuning a joint venture for leather in ready-to-wear, which will be final-ized soon,” he revealed. At the same time, the company has been facilitating access to credit for all its suppliers.

“We have our own data base we provide to the banks. This is not a paternalistic approach but a structured system that works with the goal to support, invest in and share expertise,” said di Marco.

Among other examples in Italy, the Chamber of Fashion and industry association Sistema Moda Italia have signed a deal with the country’s giant UniCredit to favor the commer-cial growth of 50,000 companies that make up the nation’s textile and fashion system, said Fabio Tamburini, UniCredit execu-tive in charge of Made in Italy development, whose fashion background includes posts at Pomellato and Benetton. The projects range from the financ-ing that aims to relaunch the manufacturing skills of the Italian fashion industry to the strengthening of key assets, such as creativity, marketing and communication through train-ing, fairs and events.

Versace ceo Gian Giacomo Ferraris underscored the rel-evance of the ready-to-wear component for the brand in strategic planning.

“The signature line ac-counts for 60 percent of the group’s sales and 100 percent of the signature line is pro-duced in Italy. Fifty percent of sales derive from ready-to-wear, so each season we have a different workmanship for certain fashion details.”

Since he arrived at the company in 2009, when he launched an extensive reor-ganization plan, Ferraris has nearly doubled the company’s size and expanded its busi-ness, also capitalizing on in-vestments made over the past few seasons in its production platform in Novara, Italy. In addition, “there is a network of

laboratories in Italy that is the country’s strength and added advantage,” he explained. Different laboratories are specialized in different crafts and details, which allow more flexibility and innovation for a brand that sells so much ready-to-wear, he noted.

However, Ferraris under-scored that all contracts are strictly regulated by law so that employment terms are estab-lished and guaranteed long-term.

Francesco Pesci, ceo of Brioni, said the company, founded in central Italy’s

Penne almost 55 years ago, has a tight relationship with its re-gion and, with parent company Kering, it has started to “cre-ate excellence in the supply chain centralized in Penne, so it becomes a top-quality indus-trial operation in terms of effi-ciency, to guarantee continuity. Luxury has a great tradition of artisanal production but this hasn’t always coincided with efficient service, timely deliv-eries and modern design.”

Pesci said Brioni has begun to offer its master tai-lors new career possibilities around the world. Students from the company’s Sartoria School may become part of

the brand’s retail network in Italy and abroad. While work-ing within the company was traditionally the only outlet for these trained tailors, this is no longer the case. For in-stance, a 20-year-old tailor may set out for Beijing to work in Brioni’s store there, said Pesci. “We are opening the territory to the world, we are bringing it to our custom-ers. We are not only talking about it, telling a story about our product, but we also want them to feel, see and touch it.”

Pesci contended that “the Made in Italy label is a competi-tive advantage, it provides prod-uct integrity and authenticity, but consumers are focusing on brands that have substance in addition to desirability.”

Mario Filippi Coccetta, presi-dent and ceo of Fabiana Filippi, which is headquartered in Italy’s Umbria region and specializes in fine cashmere, concurred.

“It’s not only about the label, but also about the perception of the product,” he said.

His goal is for the brand’s looks to be instantly recog-nizable in windows as being Made in Italy.

He, too, underscored the need for industrial organiza-tion as well as craftsmanship.

“Markets require more planning, as the timing of de-liveries has been significantly pushed earlier and earlier — especially outside Italy. We deliver fall collections in May or June and our spring lines in November or December.”

This requires great orga-nization and a pool of reli-

able suppliers, as the com-pany projects the acquisition of raw materials, “basically in the dark,” he said. It takes between 45 and 90 days for a production cycle, meaning the company must have raw ma-terials and supplies in-house when the orders are received.

“We don’t respond to a need, but rather we provoke it....Taking a stroll at a summer resort, a tourist will want to buy a cashmere coat because he feels like he wants to wear it the following winter, not be-cause he is feeling cold,” re-marked Filippi Coccetta.

Cucinelli’s personal and professional history is closely tied to the medieval village of Solomeo, near Italy’s Perugia, which he bought and restored as his company’s headquar-ters. The entrepreneur has built a theater and set up a school in Solomeo. Inviting in-vestors to the village for a first-hand experience — and a few meals at the local trattoria — ahead of his company’s initial public offering in 2012 helped build the brand’s aura and success in the market, he said. But Cucinelli knows product is what defines a brand.

“The difference between artisanal, [handmade] and ex-clusive pieces and those that are industrial and are priced lower has become increasingly sharp over the past two years, and accelerated in the past year,” he said, noting a height-ened request for women’s lux-ury daywear. “There is a shift — we don’t need what is in ex-cess in the U.S. and Europe.”

Umberto Angeloni, chair-man and ceo of Fabbrica Sartoriale Italiana, which pro-duces the Caruso brand, said “one must know how to tell the consumer today also about the manufacture and the region the products come from.”

He is investing in the ex-pansion of the company, based in Soragna, near Parma, and, with a short film he is develop-ing, he plans to tell the story of the brand and the locale, fusing it with the production facility. The plant becomes “a meeting point and destination for cli-ents, buyers and also custom-ers — sort of a grand tour.”

The local culinary experi-ence also becomes part of this story. At its Milan showroom, the company set up a small trattoria with a pergola serving Soragna’s famed culatello, tor-tellini and parmigiano “as a re-flection of the territory, the pro-duction and the landscape. This is the direction, it’s not only about products made by hand, but also about the location, it’s a deeper [version of] Made in Italy,” said Angeloni. “The ex-cellence is not only about the suit or the label, customers also want to see the location to em-brace the Italian lifestyle.”

WWD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

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’’The excellence is not only about the suit or

the label, customers also want to see the location to embrace the Italian lifestyle.

— UMBERTO ANGELONI, FABBRICA SARTORIALE ITALIANA

A Moment of ReinventionMade in Italy comprises the product as well as the stories behind it. By Luisa Zargani

Versace Brioni

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WWD MADE IN ITALY

EU Labeling Issue Flares AgainWHAT’S IN A LABEL?

For years, European Union coun-tries have been bickering over legis-lation that would mandate marking country of origin on consumer goods sold within its borders, as opposed to keeping labels voluntary.

While the law would apply to a va-riety of products, in Italy, where fam-ily-run textile and apparel plants still dot the countryside, it has become a cause célèbre of the fashion industry. Along with Spain, Portugal, France and Greece, the country is part of a size-able central-southern block pushing to make labels obligatory; northern neigh-bors such as Germany, the U.K. and the Netherlands, meanwhile, are among the most vocal critics of “Made In” labeling.

In its most recent form, the “Made In” proposal is part of the Consumer Product Safety Regulation, which was put to a vote in the EU Parliament in April, with 485 in favor — 76 percent of the total — 27 abstaining and 130 opposed.

According to data from VoteWatch Europe, an independent organization that promotes transparency in EU decision-making, no Italian members voted against the regulation. In addi-tion, there was broad intra-EU support for it among the Progressive Alliance

of Socialists and Democrats, the European United Left-Nordic Green Left and the conservative Group of the European People’s Party.

The measure is currently stalled pending the EU Council’s approval. While Italy presides over the Council through December, many fashion in-dustry insiders are anxious about the legislation’s future.

“The ‘Made In’ legislation is a guar-antee for millions of consumers,” said Claudio Marenzi, president of the Sistema Moda Italia trade association and high-end sportswear company Herno. “That’s something not just our own, but all the EU governments, need to keep in mind.”

He described product origin labels as a matter of “intellectual honesty.”

With consumer awareness of environ-mental and labor issues on the rise, “re-stricting this matter to private or public economic interests is not appropriate,” said Patricia Piñeiro Orellano, director of the domestic market and European affairs for the Spanish Federation of Footwear Industries, or FICE.

“This isn’t a rule that doesn’t exist yet — it exists, just not in Europe,” added Lara Comi, a center-right Italian member of the EU Parliament and staunch “Made In” advocate. “We are doing all of this activity, sure, for busi-nesses, but mostly for consumers, who have a right to know how and where products were made.”

Many of the EU’s top trading part-ners, including the U.S., China and Japan, already mandate country-of-origin labels on imported goods. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, labels on imported goods must have legible and perma-nent enough markings “for the ulti-mate purchaser to be made aware of the goods’ origin.”

“Made In” champions say it’s high time the EU followed suit. At present, there is no legislation regarding mark-ing or labeling the origin of products imported into the EU.

“The national laws of the Member State concerned — as far as any such legislation exists — is therefore ap-plicable,” according to the European Commission’s Taxation and Customs Union. A directive related to textiles requires labeling fiber composition, but not origin.

“All around the world, these labels are required,” said Cleto Sagripanti, president of Assocalzaturifici, Italy’s trade association of shoemakers, and also of Italian Holding Moda, a com-pany that owns the Alberto Fermani and Les Tropéziennes brands. “When I want to sell something in China, I have to put [origin] labels on my prod-ucts. We [Europeans] allow all sorts of things across our borders.”

Carmen Arias Castellano, gen-eral secretary of the European Confederation of the Footwear Industry, noted that country of origin labels fa-cilitate “the traceability of the product back to the actual place of manufacture in case products have been found to be unsafe or inappropriate.”

In today’s global marketplace, European companies are exporting more than ever, and “they already need to include the origin on their products when reaching third markets. There will not therefore be any addi-tional cost,” Castellano said, adding, “the administrative burden for compa-nies is widely overestimated.”

“Origin is identified according to non-preferential rules, well known by manufacturers and importers, and they do not need to do any additional research,” she said.

On the issue of cost, Germany — which has been leading the charge against “Made In” labels — begs to dif-fer. Felix Ebner, head of the department of trade and international cooperation at the Confederation of the German Textile and Fashion Industry, said many small weavers in Germany purchase thread without knowing the precise ori-gin of the fibers, and that asking small- and medium-size businesses to “track the whole supply chain” would certainly raise their operating costs.

He also said Italy’s portrayal of the issues at stake is misleading.

“The best argument against ‘Made In’ is that you don’t inform the consum-er about the real origin of the product. A suit or a shirt is not made only in one country,” he said, and so “in the end, you cannot really say which country it’s coming from.”

In Germany, he estimated that 120,000 people work in textile and ap-parel manufacturing, and the major-ity are employed in fabric production, weaving and finishing.

“We are not against the general aim of informing consumers, but we have to find the appropriate way of achieving it,” Ebner said, noting that most north-ern European countries would support more uniform EU labeling regulations, but not the current “Made In” proposal.

International non-preferential rules of origin state that: “If two or more countries are involved in the produc-tion of goods, the concept of ‘last, sub-stantial transformation’ determines the origin of the goods.”

Applied to the textile and fashion sector, Ebner said these rules would ultimately render an origin label mean-ingless due to the significant number of different manufacturing stages in-volved. Asked why Europe couldn’t apply similar labeling rules to those re-quired in the U.S., Ebner said that the U.S. “is a totally different market, with a very protectionist trade policy” and that it was not comparable to the EU.

Comi said there are numerous par-allels to be made between labeling in textiles and fashion, and in other in-dustries — for instance, in the agricul-tural and food sector, or the artisanal construction sector. The rules of ori-

gin apply to all sorts of products, she said, and dismissed criticism on these grounds as “nitpicking.”

“Why would the truth create preju-dice?” she asked. “If a Chinese product is appealing, customers can go ahead and buy it.”

Italy, she noted, is unusual in that its own “Made in Italy” label is a quasi brand in and of itself, associated with high quality and beautiful design.

Other countries often rely more on European company names to promote their products, even if these are made outside Europe, she contended.

Germany isn’t a lone wolf in the de-bate, however. In the U.K. — namely in the east Midlands, London and Lancashire — about 9,000 people are employed in the supply side of footwear, half of them in manufacturing, said Richard Kottler, chief executive officer of the British Footwear Association, which counts 165 members.

“The BFA supports the U.K. gov-ernment line, which is broadly similar to the German one but with the addi-tional point that we believe that there is sufficient U.K. legislation covering this topic to make additional EU regu-lations largely unnecessary,” Kottler said. “There is broad agreement be-tween all parts of the U.K. fashion in-dustry on this point.”

A 2012 EU Commission study found that 96 percent and 91 percent of EU citizens respectively cited quality and price as important considerations when buying food, and 71 percent also cited product origin as significant. While non-food origin labels are not yet mandatory across Europe, many Italian fashion executives are convinced that consumers would favor them.

Consumers are very attentive to where apparel and accessories are manufactured, “especially in footwear, because the shoes produced in certain countries contain high levels of harm-ful chemicals that aren’t allowed in the EU,” said Sagripanti.

Orellano of FICE said that ultimate-ly “it is the brand that guarantees the quality of the product it sells, wherev-er the place of manufacture may be.” Companies that invest in corporate social responsibility, she said, can “re-inforce their reputation and transform the fact that they manufacture in a cer-tain place into an added value.”

Controversy surrounds legislation over country-of-origin rules. By Cynthia Martens

Claudio Marenzi

Cleto Sagripanti

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for businesses, but mostly for

consumers, who have a right to know

how and where products were made.

— LARA COMI, ITALIAN MEMBER OF THE EU PARLIAMENT

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E-COMMERCE IS GROWING at a vigorous rate in Italy, and although it has a way to go to catch up with some other countries, online retailers and site man-agers are making big strides.

A study by Human Highway for Netcomm showed that over the past three years, the number of Italian e-shoppers has increased to 16 million from 9 mil-lion, and there are 10 million monthly deliveries of products bought online in Italy. Considering the fash-ion segment only, the research noted that between April 2013 and April 2014, online clothing customers have increased 42 percent, to 3.3 million.

The growth is encouraging, but other data provid-ed by U.K.-based Centre for Retail Research pointed out, for example, that this year in the U.K., online retail sales generated about $73.04 billion at current exchange, while in Italy e-commerce was about $8.65 billion.

Despite the late start, a number of Italian companies have demonstrated a pioneering approach to the Web, imposing their presence on the international markets.

Yoox Group, the online retail giant founded by Italian entrepreneur Federico Marchetti, is a leader in the segment. Marchetti launched Yoox.com in 2000 and publicly listed it in 2009. The site pioneered the concept of offering online overstocked and unsold items from in-ternational designers’ collections at discounted prices.

Yoox.com was followed in 2008 by Thecorner.com, a luxury men’s and women’s multibrand e-tailer, and in 2012 by footwear-focused Shoescribe.com. These differ from Yoox.com in that they sell full-price products. In addition, Yoox Group manages the e-commerce Web sites of a range of fashion and design labels, such as Marni (which opened first, in 2006), Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna, Alexander Wang and the brands under the Kering umbrella, among others.

Other smaller entities are also emerging on the Italian scene. Among them is The Level Group, a Milan-based company launched three years ago that oper-ates the online companies of about 15 fashion brands including Casadei, Stuart Weitzman, Aspesi, Woolrich, Geox and Galliano. In February, The Level Group also

bought London-based fashion retailer LN-CC, which was founded by former buyer John Skelton and had been under administration before the acquisition.

“We launched The Level Group based on the firm belief that sooner or later, a brand-oriented perspective would have emerged on the online scene,” said Andrea Ciccoli, explaining the core strategy of the company he cofounded. “People keep talking about the importance of going online, but most of them don’t consider the fact that the luxury industry follows different rules from the mass market. Consequently, it’s important to man-age fashion labels online with a particular approach.”

According to Ciccoli, this approach should con-sider not only operations and technical aspects, but there should also be a strong focus on marketing and on the creation of a tight interaction between a brand’s online and off-line presence.

Working with Italian as well as international com-panies, he also cited differences in the approach to online business in different markets. In particular, Ciccoli noticed that American brands are generally a step ahead in the management of the interaction

with their customers, and also have better skills in integrating the various communication channels.

“Also, in Italy, there are some companies that look at the online [channel] as the fastest way to increase revenues, forgetting the need to invest based on a long-term strategy, which includes a constant atten-tion to all the elements, including the quality of the images available on the site.”

Quality was one of the main ingredients that Andrea Panconesi, chief executive officer of Florence-based Luisa Via Roma, cited as triggering the success of his luxury e-tailer.

Launched in 1999 as an extension of the brick-and-mortar store, luisaviaroma.com, which sells about 500 fashion brands in categories from women’s wear and men’s wear to activewear, is now managed separately from the boutique and employs a dedicated team of 120 people. The logistics headquarters are located in Florence and all operations are handled in-house.

“The luisaviaroma.com project was born from an intuition I got,” Panconesi explained. “We felt the need to reach our foreign clients, who used to come to Florence twice a year. [Before the site launched] we would keep in touch with them by sending cata-logues made specifically for foreign markets. Then, that unknown beast called the Web arrived, and we had the opportunity to give our international clients access to our offering.”

Now luisaviaroma.com accounts for 90 percent of Luisa Via Roma’s total sales, with the U.S. and Canada accounting for the lion’s share of the business.

This doesn’t mean that the e-commerce casts a shadow on the Florence store.

“The online and the actual store perfectly coex-ist,” said Panconesi. “Actually, the online store boost-ed the growth of the brick-and-mortar store, which is constantly visited by international customers who heard about us for the first time online.”

Retailers are not the only fashion players inter-ested in growing a business online.

In 2011, Florence-based trade show organizer Pitti Uomo launched e-Pitti, a portal developed in col-laboration with Fiera Digitale, to boost interaction between buyers and exhibitors at fairs Pitti Uomo, Pitti W, Pitti Filati and Pitti Bimbo. E-Pitti includes an extensive array of images — during the last edi-tion of Pitti Uomo, Fiera Digitale’s photo crew shot about 60,000 images — and videos taken at the fairs, prolonging visibility for exhibitors.

“Nowadays, the Web is the most important source of information about commercial products for per-sonal as well as professional uses, and is also the most relevant place to learn about trends,” said Fiera Digitale Chief Executive Officer Francesco Bottigliero. “We thought that a digital fair could reinforce the strength of the physical trade show. Considering the fact that the average buyer attending Pitti Uomo, for example, stays in Florence for a cou-ple of days and has time to visit only about 50 of the 1,000 booths, the digital trade show could allow him to check out more brands when he gets back home. And at the same time, this can allow exhibitors to get in touch with more buyers.”

Bottigliero noted that e-Pitti also gives those who were not able to attend the show access to the collec-tions.

In June, Fiera Digitale revamped e-Pitti’s look to better accommodate the needs of its users. In par-ticular, the Web site was made more user-friendly for viewing on mobile devices, in consideration that in certain countries 40 percent of users have access to the online fairs from tablets and smartphones.

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Catching Up in E-CommerceItalian e-tailers are getting aggressive. By Alessandra Turra

Luisa Via Roma’s Web site (below) has boosted sales at its brick-and-mortar store (above). In June, Fiera Digitale revamped e-Pitti’s look.

Here, the Pitti Uomo site.

Yoox.com, launched in 2000, was a pioneer in selling

overstock merchandise

online.

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ITALY’S DOMINANT role on the international beauty scene goes beyond savvy packaging and inno-vative powder technology. Many insiders note that Italy itself is the source of a rich variety of natu-ral ingredients that can be harvested and used in cosmetics.

“All along the ‘boot’ you can find high-qual-ity raw materials,” said Fabio Rossello, presi-dent of Cosmetica Italia, the trade association of Italian cosmetics firms, referring to the Italian peninsula’s famous shape. “If in the north, for ex-ample, you find mint from Piedmont, in the south you can’t forget the citrus fam-ily of bergamot, lemon, or-ange and cedar.”

Rossello noted that olive oil and its spin-offs, as well as grape and vegetable extracts, lavender and aloe, are also cultivated in Italy, and that demand for products contain-ing these raw materials re-mains high. He estimated that overall, Italian cosmetics exports were set to increase by 7 percent this year over 2013, for a value of 3.4 billion euros, or about $4.41 billion at current exchange.

In Collistar’s Ti Amo Italia (“I love you, Italy”) launch this year, natural ingredients were prominently illus-trated on packaging with a map show-ing where in Italy they were sourced. “All the ingredients we use come from certified Italian producers and we’re reinforcing our efforts [in this sense]. Indeed, we are developing a new proj-ect that should lead to the first direct collaboration with a local producer,” said the firm’s chief executive officer, Daniela Sacerdote.

Giovanni Sgariboldi, founder and president of Euroitalia, which holds the fragrance licenses for Versace, Moschino and John Richmond, said his compa-ny regularly selects berga-

mot, lemon and mandarin from Italian farms.

“In many of our fra-grances, at least one of these ingredients is present,” he said, citing Versace Yellow Diamond and Versace Pour Homme as examples.

Ferragamo Parfums p r e s i d e n t L u c i a n o Bertinelli said the selec-tion of such ingredients also helped bolster a com-pany’s overall “Made in Italy” image, a powerful brand with consumers.

“During the fragrance-making creative process, we always try to include exceptional Italian in-gredients in the blend, because they are the very emblem of the Italian life-style,” he said. Calabrian

bergamot was used both in the brand’s Tuscan Soul Punta Ala and Acqua

Essenziale Blu juices, and Florentine iris was included in Tuscan Soul Viola Essenziale, Bertinelli said.

Roberto Martone, president of ICR and ceo of ITF, the group that produces fragrances for Blumarine, Dsquared2, Pomellato and Trussardi, said a wide range of Italian ingredients could be found in those scents, too.

“The ingredients harvested in Italy that we use the most are the iris from Florence, lavender from Umbria, ar-temisia from Tuscany, mimosa from Liguria and orange blossoms from Sicily,” he said, adding that Italy also produces rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, Sicilian myrtle and almond extract.

Martone’s love for Italian plants led him to include a special garden in his Magna Pars Suites Milano luxury hotel, which opened in 2012 and was born out of his family’s old perfume factory: The garden contains olive and maple trees, as well as “Pyramidalis” hornbeams and liq-uidambar, which Martone said is known in the fragrance world “for the odorous resin it produces, called storax.”

“For some time now, there has been a much greater sensitivity on behalf of

consumers not just to raw materials, but to their quality,” he added.

Bulgari Parfums managing director Valeria Manini agreed.

“There is a growing consumer awareness of ingredients, spurred in part by the move by some brands to push one key ingredient in fragranc-es,” she said. “There’s greater interest in the olfactory pyramid [often used to structure fragrances], which years ago you didn’t really see….There’s also

more sensitivity to the fact that natural resources are limited. There’s social pressure on companies to pay attention to where and how we get our ingredi-ents. It’s an effort we must make.”

Bulgari Parfums frequently seeks out raw materials tied to its Mediterranean identity.

“When you are an Italian brand, it’s important to express yourself through the beauty of Italy and also to con-tribute to protecting its heritage. That doesn’t mean you’ll never use san-dalwood or benzoin, for instance, but it does lead you to invest heavily in Italian raw materials,” Manini noted.

Among the Italian ingredients Bulgari frequently uses, Manini listed iris flower from Tuscany, Sicilian mandarin and lemon, and Calabrian bergamot.

“If you want to get the best tur-quoise, you go to Iran, and likewise the best bergamot in the world is in Calabria,” she said, noting Bulgari

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Acqua Dell’Elba, Bulgari Man In Black and Versace, which is by Euroitalia, source botanical ingredients from throughout Italy.

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{Continued on page 12}

Inner BeautyThe origin of the ingredients is becoming more important in cosmetics and fragrances. By Cynthia Martens

There’s social pressure on companies to pay attention to where and how we get our

ingredients. It’s an effort we must make.— VALERIA MANINI, BULGARI PARFUMS

Ferragamo’s Tuscan Soul uses bergamot

from Calabria.

Comfort Zone’s Sacred Nature products

are bio-certified.

w19b010(12)a;5.indd 10 9/18/14 11:24 AM09182014112510

scents Omnia Crystalline and Le Gemme Citrina are among the juices containing this ingredient. “There are always substitutes, but this is the choice of top perfumers.”

Lesser-known ingredients Bulgari uses in its perfumes include broom, an evergreen shrub found in Calabria, and juniper from the Piedmont regions.

Davide Bollati, founder and chair-man of the Davines and Comfort Zone hair- and skin-salon brands, said he has long favored natural and organic ingredients. He, too, ticked off olive oil, citrus fruits and herbs such as sage and calendula as local treasures, but noted that Comfort Zone has also worked more unusual ele-ments into its skin products.

“For the Aromasoul Volcanic Scrub, we worked with a special, ultrafine lava powder, rhyolite, derived from silica-rich lava rocks originally from the volcanic magma of Stromboli [in the Aeolian islands]. It’s the perfect mineral to regenerate and smooth skin without com-promising its hydrolipid layer,” Bollati said. He also referenced a tomato-skin extract with powerful antioxidants proposed by the University of Bologna that Comfort Zone uses in its Skin Defender Urban Protection line.

Consumer apprecia-tion for such innovations led Comfort Zone to part-ner this fall with Tuscan hotel group Fonteverde Collection and its three thermal resorts, each of which is located inside a historical Italian resi-dence and adheres to long-standing local spa traditions. Under the

agreement, Comfort Zone’s top prod-ucts and treatments will be available to resort guests.

Well-established beauty emporiums aren’t the only ones to recognize Italy’s potential: A fresh crop of entrepreneurs has seized the moment to launch new brands that base their entire identity on high-quality natural raw materials.

Artisanal fragrance label Acqua dell’Elba, for instance, relies almost exclusively on ingredients from Elba island, off the coast of Tuscany, such as rock rose, myrtle, rosemary, sea-weed and jasmine, the last of which founder Fabio Murzi said “has a warmth that makes it a good alterna-

tive to more exotic [and foreign] ingredients like patchouli.”

Murzi, his sister Chiara Murzi and Marco Turoni, all native islanders, start-ed the brand in the late Nineties, and while it has slowly grown to 24 mono-brand stores and more than 300 perfumery sales points, these are currently limited to Italy.

“Expansion outside Italy would require mak-ing operations significant-ly bigger — we have no immediate plans for that. However, as we think of the future, we are consid-ering monobrand stores in places like Paris, London, Munich and eventually New York,” Murzi said.

Gabriel Balestra, ceo and international direc-tor of branding and mer-chandising for Skin & Co. Roma, is originally Italian but has been liv-ing in New York since 2004. Building on his fam-ily’s decades of experi-ence harvesting truffles in Umbria, he founded a

truffle-centric cosmetics company in 2013 that now sells its products in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, with fur-ther development planned next year in Europe and South America.

“Truffles are really strong in antioxidants that have been studied for their bright-ening and tightening proper-ties. We use truffle extract in our products and depending on the product we are mak-ing, percentages can vary,” Balestra explained, noting that serums and moisturizers contain higher levels than body creams.

“Truffle hunting is a very hard job, since truf-fles are found one at a time in several parts of woody areas that are called farms,” he said. “We have farmers that have been working with us to collect truffles over the years and [the number collected] changes every year, de-pending on the season.”

Balestra added that con-sumers are “becoming more and more savvy” when it comes to cosmetics, want-ing information about “the origins of the ingredients in the products they use” as well as the environmental impact of those products and ingredients.

“Made in Italy is still a game-changer in any industry. Americans love Italy; they appreciate, value and trust Italian products….They want the Italian lifestyle to come with their products,” he added.

Asked if Skin & Co. Roma would consider expanding into other Italian ingredient categories, Balestra said it was a possibility.

“Umbria is home to a vegetation that offers a variety of ingredients that can be used in skin care, such as grapes from the Orvieto area,” clay and sunflower, he said.

Launched in 2011, another beauty brand on the upswing is Arangara,

based in Ardore Marina, Calabria, on the so-called “Jasmine Coast.” The com-pany name comes from “a’rangara,” which means “orange tree” in local dialect. Ceo Giovanni Zappavigna’s grandparents started the farming busi-ness around 1950, although the fam-ily had already been in agriculture for decades. When he took over the reins from his father, Zappavigna “wanted to do something different, to go beyond the typical farm.”

Arangara derives essential oils and vegetable complexes from the citrus plants on its 25-acre organic farm, and extracts vitamin-rich water from the fruit skins.

“Instead of using normal water, we use this mixture, which gives our creams an unusually high percentage of organic ingredients,” Zappavigna said. Arangara also harvests a special kind of aloe vera, and prides itself on traceabil-ity: “We can tell you when we collected the oranges and from what tree,” by reading labels on the products.”

The brand’s first commercial coup came through a deal with the Four Seasons hotel chain, which exclusive-ly carries Arangara’s Il Giardino line. Arangara’s products are also found in other high-end hotels, and at the Eataly food emporium. At present, the brand counts about 100 sales points in

Italy, Zappavigna said, and a smaller number in Germany, Austria, the U.K. and Japan. In the U.S., Arangara prod-ucts — like Skin & Co. Roma’s — are available through the Birchbox mail-order service.

Italy’s major strength in the beau-ty sector, Zappavigna added, lies in its ability to transform ingredients. He cited the example of a type of Calabrian grape vine that produces a strong wine called “negrello,” but has also been used in cosmetics to greater effect. “We know how to breathe new life into ingredients that are typically used for something else,” he said.

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Inner Beauty

Made in Italy is still a game-changer in any

industry. Americans love Italy; they appreciate, value and trust Italian products.

— GABRIEL BALESTRA, SKIN & CO. ROMA

Here and right: Arangara derives essential oils from its organic citrus groves for its body lotions.

Skin & Co. Roma harvests truffles

from Umbria.

THE DISTINCTION IN the West between decora-tive and fine art — art with a function and art for art’s sake — has roots in Renaissance Italy and was influenced by seminal 16th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari.

That, however, has never kept Italian design from crossing boundaries, exercising purity of craft to carry out aesthetic vision, or turning objects into canvases and sculptures.

Gucci creative director Frida Giannini combined fine art and fashion in a collaboration with Canadian painter Kris Knight for the cruise 2015 season. Known for his moody, evocative portraits, Knight reinterpreted Gucci’s historic Flora silk scarf motif, creating artwork that was then reworked into prints that appear in Giannini’s designs, from men’s and women’s clothing to accessories such as silks, hand-bags and luggage.

Art is a signature for Piazza Sempione, whose spring line is inspired by the work of Italian Futurist painter Fortunato Depero.

It takes more than a month and an enormous amount of work to create an elaborately detailed and colored, lushly illustrated Ferragamo silk fou-lard. Eighty percent of a printed silk scarf ’s success lies on the shoulders of the master engraver, said Fulvia Visconti Ferragamo, who has run the fashion label’s silk accessories division since the Seventies.

She pointed to a particularly prized master engraver in the his-toric Como silk district who has worked with Ferragamo for several decades and is now in his 70s. He is training young people in his craft. “Sometimes he wants to retire. And we say, ‘Not yet, not yet,” she said.

Achieving Emilio Pucci’s unique look poses serious technical prob-lems, and critical phases of silk foulard-making are still done by hand, said chief executive officer Laudomia Pucci. “Our graphic ele-ments, apparently clean and sim-ple, create many headaches.”

Luxury label Etro draws inspi-ration for its signature paisleys from an archive of 300 historic shawls, dating from 1810 to 1880, owned by the label. Expert paisley designer Serge Maury draws pencil outlines that are then filled in with tempera paint using sable brushes. From there, the design is trans-ferred through a complex process to photogravure plates to allow printing on fabric.

Bag and accessories special-ist Braccialini Group turns bag-making into figurative sculpture. Bags shaped as colorful, finely crafted creatures and objects re-quire designing, 3-D modeling and prototyping by a master craftsman, said Massimo Braccialini, creative director and son of the founder. “Often when the object is actually constructed, has a different look and needs to go back to CAD modeling.”

Meanwhile, luxury leather house Borbonese built its techni-cally difficult Butterfly bag, with a melange of precious leathers, in-spired by a foulard.

GUCCI Canadian painter Kris Knight calls his interpretation of Gucci’s histor-ic Flora silk scarf design “quietly dangerous.” It references seduc-tion tactics in ancient pagan Rome and features nocturnal blossoms and butterflies.

Creative director Frida Giannini applied Knight’s designs for prints on men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, accessories and lug-gage for the cruise 2015 season.

ETRO“Many of the pais-ley patterns in the Etro collections are still designed by hand,” said Jacopo Etro, creative di-rector and son of the house’s founder. “There are very few masters who pass on this art and the technique of its realization. A single design can require a month of processing.”

The paisley pattern was born in Mesopotamia and is a symbol of the tree of life. “From Indian prints to Celtic embroi-deries, it became a real object of de-sire in the 19th century, which all the elegant women in European courts wanted to wear,” said Etro.

SALVATORE FERRAGAMOFulvia Viscont i Ferragamo said the house produces 12 to 15 new scarf mo-tifs for each season, that are then cre-ated in a number of color and size variations that often require careful cali-bration and further motif modifications.

Early motifs cen-tred on patchwork animals composed of flowers. Scarves evolved into worlds of exotic foliage and magical savannahs — tigers, leop-ards, zebras and other wild animals — and into other inspirations run-ning from Oriental art to 20th-century European painting.

“People ask me why are they al-ways jungle animals. I’ll tell you, they are the most elegant animals in the world,” said Visconti Ferragamo.

Thick, premium silk, details like a contrasting hand-sewn border, and a beautiful backside hardly distin-guishable from the front, are also hallmarks of the silk accessories, which have become a hallmark of the brand.

PIAZZA SEMPIONE Piazza Sempione has adapted a 1918 painting by Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero, “Rotazione di ballerina e pappagalli” (rotation of a dancer and parrots), as a motif for its spring cap-sule collection. The ready-to-wear features the use of a special pigment overprinting technique.

In a collaboration with the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, or MART, Piazza Sempione is displaying the original painting, which is on loan from the museum, along with the capsule col-lection during Milan Fashion Week. The event celebrates a beginning of a relaunch for the company after re-cent acquisition by the Sinv Group in Vicenza.

BRACCIALINICreative director Massimo Braccialini said the Flower Express bag required outside consulting from an auto-motive expert to understand how to model the front of its mini-truck form.

BORBONESEThe Lady Butterfly bag by luxury leather house Borbonese was made in 2006 as a reinterpretation of a historic foulard in the Borbonese archives. The elaborate construction of the purse requires precious leathers from ostrich, crocodile, lambskin and Borbonese’s signature Occhio di Pernice suede for a retro-Seven-ties patchwork look.

PUCCIEmilio Pucci archives of its sig-nature designs has reached ap-proximately 15,000 designs, said ceo Laudomia Pucci. “Despite the experience and the help of technology, some difficulties al-ways remain the same: getting the shine and fullness of our colors is a challenge that puts a strain on even those who have done this job for years.” Here, a foulard from fall.

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Art to WearDistinctive patterns become house signatures. By Emily Backus

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Sustainability has been a hot topic in the Italian fashion system as brands and their suppliers increase their commitment to green processes and practices. By Emily Backus

SUSTAINABLE CHOICES IN Italian fashion are still hard to spot for end consumers. Glamorous e-com-merce sites and eye-catching store displays of Italian designs or products seldom speak of ethical or eco-logical concerns about people, chemicals, water, for-ests, energy and air.

With few exceptions, clothing labels don’t typically mention the environmental and social impact of the husbandry, processing, handiwork, packaging or trans-port involved in the complete journey for a dress or handbag to go from raw materials to store shelf.

Nevertheless, industry operators, environmental consultants and activists say major Italian labels and key suppliers in the Italian fashion production chain have been ahead of the curve compared to many on ensuring justice and safety for the people who work for them, and have now initiated a major shift behind the scenes — though still in the early stages for many — to shore up their use of energy, water, paper, raw materials and waste.

“Italy has the highest number of SA8000-certified factories [for socially re-sponsible workplaces],” said Francesca Mangano, head of business develop-ment for the Italian and Swiss markets for Made-By, a U.K.-based nonprofit group that helps fashion and textile brands improve the life-cycle impact of their collections. “The sus-tainable transformation in the fashion and textile sec-tor focuses mostly on [en-ergy] efficiency.

“Although the concept of a sustainable supply chain is growing, few Italian com-panies have taken a holis-tic approach with practices that include life-cycle as-sessments,” she added.

Mangano acknowledged, however, “Brands and mai-sons that are starting to move toward a more sus-tainable supply chain tend to keep their efforts behind closed doors.”

Environmental sustainability is a delicate subject and a work in progress, with many firms still defining their strategies. Gucci, Valentino, Armani and Prada serve on the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, or CNMI, sustainability commission. Gucci leads the group and is known for its consolidated experience in the field.

Across its entire supply chain of roughly 45,000 people, the Florence-based firm claims an interna-tional SA8000 certification for full compliance with labor, health, safety and freedom of association laws. Its French parent, Kering, has adopted group-wide targets — affecting 21 top brands from Boucheron to Puma — addressing deforestation, carbon dioxide emissions, waste, water usage, responsible raw ma-terials sourcing, as well as eliminating hazardous chemicals throughout the global supply chain by 2020, according to its Web site.

Micaela Le Divelec, chief corporate operating of-ficer at Gucci, said the company initiated a compre-hensive study three years ago to create a system of Environmental Profit & Loss reports, quantifying en-vironmental costs to people and the economy at each stage of the production chain, including water use, waste and air pollution.

“We will be the first brand in this industry to have an environmental P&L. The first report will be published in 2016, based on 2015 real data,” said Le Divelec, echoing Kering’s commitment to deliver an environmental P&L for its entire group in 2016.

While other major luxury labels are still reticent

to detail their progress, that doesn’t mean they have been inactive. For instance, the Valentino Fashion Group topped Greenpeace Italy’s Fashion Duel ranking of high-end French and Italian brands for environmentally friendly policies in 2013; it has committed to eliminat-ing hazardous chemicals from its global supply chain by 2020 and is adopting a no-deforesta-tion policy for procuring leather and paper.

The CNMI’s sustainability commission is de-veloping a concrete framework of processes and procedures for members to follow. Adherence to this strategy will be optional, but it is expected to set an industry standard among heavyweights at the top of the Italian supply chain.

“This is a management and coordination organ,” said a Prada spokesman. “It aims to

promote and sup-port the entire Italian fashion production system through the adop-tion of models of responsible management throughout the value chain.”

Gucci , Valentino, Armani and Prada are also among 11 major Italian maisons serving on a CNMI roundtable that ham-mered out the Manifesto on Sustainability in 2012 — a document defining common values and a sustainability agenda for Made In Italy.

Le Divelec, who chairs the CNMI sustainability commission, explained that the luxury industry is taking environmental and social impact seriously. During a presentation at an apparel innovation conference in London in July, she said ef-forts are being made to re-duce risks regarding repu-tation and price volatility, while increasing opportuni-ties, such as building brand value, sales and innovation.

“To distinguish oneself from the competition is an el-

ement, but the main issue is to guarantee a sustainable, long life to the business,” she said.

Mangano, however, credits the pressure from increasingly eco-con-scious international mar-kets, new transparency standards by global re-porting mechanisms and European regulations.

A number of high-end suppliers told WWD they invested in sustainabili-ty as a means of compet-ing on the global luxury market, to boost exports especially to northern European and North

American clients.Whatever the combination of reasons may be, ac-

tivity around sustainability among Italian labels and suppliers is growing.

“All of the big designers are extremely interested in developments regarding responsible fashion, as long as it is beautiful and refined,” said Giusy Bettoni, chief executive officer and cofounder of Creativity, Lifestyle and Sustainable Synergy, an Italian mar-keting and product development service specialized in sustainable luxury textiles. She says interest has picked up steam, especially in the last year.

In the CLASS showroom in Milan, samples of tex-tiles and garments hang, including fluid bordeaux silk with swirling color patterns, wool, cashmere and lace. Bettoni indicated a stiff organzalike textile, intricate-ly embroidered, made from Manila hemp and pine-apple leaves in the Philippines. She noted she put the textile producers in contact with Gucci and Valentino.

“Everyone was open-mouthed” at the luxury la-bels, she said.

Bettoni reported Gucci will be including recycled, engineered cashmere from Re.Verso in men’s, wom-en’s and children’s collections for fall 2015, made from selected pre-consumer textile waste — scraps from Italian mills of premium, mostly wool materials — which are then resorted, mechanically converted

Stepping Up the Eco-Culture

{Continued on page 18}

A Bogner ski jacket using

Thermore insulation.

High-end suedelike synthetic fabrics by Alcantara.

Canepa participates in Greenpeace’s Fashion Detox

commitment to eliminate

hazardous chemicals by

2020.

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to fiber and retransformed into yarn for wovens, jerseys and knits. Re.Verso was developed by Italian wool mills Green Line, Nuova Fratelli Boretti and Lanificio Stelloni.

Max Mara presented a set of pieces in its spring Weekend collection made from Newlife, a premium polyester made by Saluzzo Yarns spun from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles sourced and mechanically pulverized in Italy.

The first garments were a coat, jacket, skirt and blouse in a black-and-white oversize houndstooth pattern with a taffeta consistency. They sold with a tag boasting 94 percent savings in water usage, 60 percent savings in energy and 32 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions compared to virgin polyester.

Max Mara increased its Newlife order by about 50 percent for the win-ter Weekend collection, to a few hun-dred thousand meters of fabric, or enough for tens of thousands of gar-ments, said Saluzzo Yarns director Stefano Cochis.

“There’s a beautiful technical trenchcoat,” said Cochis. “The fabric could seem printed with its shading. It’s fantastic.”

Newlife is also finding its way into large eco-conscious collections abroad, with negotiations ongoing with Eileen Fisher, Burberry and Turkish fabric maker Çalik Denim,

Cochis added.Italian fabric trade fair Milano Unica

has been issuing a growing catalogue of exhibitors’ eco-sustainable offerings since 2012.

Premium wool-maker Reda claims to be the only wool mill in the world to be certified EMAS, the European Eco-management and Audit Scheme.

“It certifies that you are really green. They come back every year to in-spect,” said Reda spokesman Fabrizio

Alessandro Goggi. “The air inside the mill is completely purified 70 times a day. Air in-side is healthier than the air outside the mill itself.”

Italian high-end silk specialist Canepa, with partner Tessitura del Salento, has developed a way to process silk using chitin, a protein from the exo-skeleton of crustaceans, that re-duces water consumption by 12 times, energy by 90 percent and completely eliminates polluting emissions, Canepa said.

Canepa has also joined the ranks of fashion labels and suppliers making Greenpeace’s Fashion Detox commitment to elimi-nate hazardous chemicals by 2020 and other environmental measures.

Alcantara, which makes high-end suedelike synthetic fabrics, has been certified carbon neutral since 2011.

Cariaggi, which spins premium cashmere and other precious yarns, has been ISO 14001-certified for en-vironmental standards since 2006,

and OHSAS 18001-approved for occupational health and safety since 2011. It has also devel-oped a line of ecological yarns, Systema Natvrae, colored exclu-sively with vegetable dyes.

“We have always sought to adopt, in every aspect of our work, eco-compatible behav-ior and attitudes, limiting as much as possible the impact of our production on the en-vironment,” said Cristiana Cariaggi, executive board member of Cariaggi Fine Yarns Collection.

Italian outerwear insu-lation maker Thermore is

Bluesign-approved for reduced envi-ronmental impact and two of its three main product lines are also certified for recycled fibers.

Eurojersey, specialist in a proprie-tary polymide microfiber and Lycra knit for underwear, swimwear and other stretch clothing, says it has used energy only from renewable sources since 2008. It also recycles the water, textile waste and tens of thousands of pounds of cel-lophane used in production.

Premium yarn maker Lanificio Dell’Olivo boasts a very short raw ma-terial supply chain with direct contact to their suppliers of fibers like alpaca, mohair and silk.

The Miroglio Group, which has 18 brands including Motivi and Elena Miro, said it is putting its entirely trace-able, vertically integrated, eco-certified supply chain at the service of clients.

Greenpeace Italy’s Chiara Campione, who heads up Fashion Duel Project — an initiative that has been

a gadfly in recent years, challenging fashion labels to communicate their practices and lobbying them to commit to purging environmentally unsound ones, said she believed the Italian fashion system had reached the tip-ping point.

“We see behind the scenes the movements of very big luxury groups reorganizing processes. They are pushing their suppliers. At this point, all the others will have to follow as [major players] completely change the rules of the production of garments, textiles and the handling of raw mate-rials. The sector is really undergoing deep change and some brands — those who don’t see it as an opportunity — will be left behind,” said Campione.

After signing up 20 global fashion leaders to its Fashion Detox campaign — including Benetton, H&M, Burberry and Zara — Greenpeace expects to reveal the commitment of another large Italian group on Monday, Campione said.

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Stepping Up the Eco-Culture{Continued from page 16}

Hugo Boss’ Orange line and a Colmar parka, below, use

Bluesign-approved Thermore fibers.

Reda’s wools are certified green by the European Eco-management and Audit Scheme.

Zero-deforestation Amazonian leather bag from Gucci.

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The Prato ChallengePRATO, Italy — Less than a year after the Dec. 1, 2013, factory fire that killed seven Chinese workers here, the city is more determined than ever to bring its illegal operations out of the shad-ows, and to promote collaboration be-tween Italians and Chinese in the tex-tile and fashion sectors.

In March, police arrested five peo-ple in connection with the Teresa Moda fire in the city, located about 14 miles north of Florence: the Italian owners of the factory building, and the fashion firm’s three Chinese managers. The media storm following the tragedy put the city government and the region of Tuscany under intense scrutiny — and that has led to a long-overdue boost in staff at the Prato courthouse, said chief prosecutor Piero Tony, noting 12 administrators and some 50 warehouse inspectors have been hired this year.

Tony, who has been in Prato since 2006 and recently announced his retire-ment, said that for many years, the city

had underestimated its own growth and therefore neglected to increase govern-ment personnel to keep up with the pace. From 1950 to 2014, the local popu-lation increased from about 73,000 to 190,000, according to the city’s statistics bureau. The province of Prato, mean-while, now has close to 250,000 residents.

Warehouse inspections and arrests “multiply the number of cases open, and we were already on our knees,” he said, noting that of Prato’s 3,600 textile and garment factories, about 2,500 were Chinese-run. He compared illegal warehouses to ghost towns hid-ing hundreds of workers: With the win-dows and doors shut, many look vacant from the outside.

Just which fashion labels from which countries are manufacturing in these factories is difficult to ascertain,

but Tony said police investigations had revealed that a few big-name brands are involved. “There are Italian brands that are above suspicion, major brands that have turned [to the Chinese in Prato] to make for two cents what they sell for two million,” he said.

Matteo Biffoni, Prato’s recently elected mayor, replaced center-right Roberto Cenni this year and has prom-ised to make safety in the textile and garment industries a priority.

“On the one hand, we plan to inten-sify inspections,” Biffoni said. “But the facts have shown that inspections aren’t enough: You need to intervene across various fronts.”

For instance, it’s equally important to crack down on illegal cloth imports, he said, and to cut off the cash flow streaming from under-the-table opera-tions back to China.

Where Biffoni differs the most from his predecessor is in his emphasis on education as a weapon against crime. “We need to make sure that respect-ing the law becomes ingrained in our culture,” Biffoni said. “Schools are the biggest tool, but we also need to work with trade associations, with business owners themselves.”

Two major waves of immigration have left their mark in Prato’s recent history. In the mid-20th century, a large number of poor southern Italians emi-grated north in search of work, and in the Eighties and Nineties, when global-ization began straining Italian textile mills, thousands of Chinese set up shop in Prato’s abandoned warehouses.

Precise estimates of the number of Chinese residents currently in Prato are hard to come by. Still, offi-cials say the Chinese represent more than 20 percent of the city’s citizens — and as many as a third are chil-dren. Biffoni said that’s a key statis-tic, as many of these kids were born in Italy and feel Italian. He would like the national government to make it easier for the children of legal im-migrants to obtain Italian citizenship, perhaps after completing a certain number of years of school.

“The important thing is not to make the mistake that has been made else-where, of making people feel excluded from their own country,” he said.

Textiles and fashion are so tightly woven into Prato that visitors need not speak to city officials to come into con-tact with the industries — or with the city’s multiculturalism.

Romano Mannucci, a taxi driver, said his family used to run a textile plant,

but sold it in 1996. Angiolo Barni, the chef at Enoteca Barni, a popular restau-rant built around his ancestors’ wood-fired brick oven, said he has catered many Chinese weddings over the years.

Meanwhile, at Ravioli Liu in the heart of Prato’s Chinatown, numerous Italian patrons could be seen among the Chinese regulars. Hong Xuemin, the owner, said she opened the place in 2011 after moving to Prato from Shenyang. Down the street on Via Fabio Filzi, two teenage girls had finished school for the day: One was born in Italy, the other in northern China, and both said their parents worked in fashion. Their names were Elena and Sofia.

Built in 1969, the San Giovanni Battista di Maliseti church, a short distance from central Prato, is a ref-erence point for many immigrants in need, and counts about 150 Chinese Catholics among its faithful, said parish priest Santino Brunetti. He chafed at the negative depiction of the Chinese in the Italian media.

“There are Chinese exploiting Chinese, but there are also a lot of Italians exploiting the Chinese,” he said, suggesting that many Italian fash-ion brands were guilty of producing in illegal warehouses. “We can’t insist on legality if we aren’t legal ourselves. People say the Chinese send too much money abroad… What about all the Italian money sitting in Switzerland? There is great hypocrisy at play.”

Brunetti compared the current prej-udice against Chinese immigrants to that experienced by southern Italians who moved north in the Sixties. Many were disparagingly called “terroni” (“people of the land”) and stereotyped as unreliable by their Tuscan and Lombard counterparts.

“That’s why school is so important. It puts different cultures together and makes them feel equal. The same process took place with the southern Italians; in the long run, everything be-came normal,” he said.

Instead of automatically shutting down illegal warehouses, Brunetti said he would like inspectors to actively help those running them make the transition to legality.

“Good politics educate, they don’t repress; repression leads to revolt or revenge. Education is much slower, but it’s effective,” he said.

That’s an idea Andrea Cavicchi, president of Prato’s industrial union (UIP), a trade group with more than 60 percent of its members in the

textile sector, has already taken to heart. Cavicchi said that since last December’s fire, there had been much greater dialogue between the city’s Italian and Chinese companies — so much so, the UIP now has two Chinese businesses on the roster, and is work-ing with the region of Tuscany on plans to help textile and garment companies meet legal operating standards.

To do this, “we also need to find housing for all the undocumented im-migrants, and temporary residence permits tied to real jobs. It’s going to be very difficult, which is why we need both national and European support,” he said, adding that trade associations such as the National Confederation of Artisans and Small to Medium Businesses, which now has about 70 Chinese member companies, also played an important role.

Prato isn’t going it alone, either. Leading trade organizations in Lucca and Pistoia, two important manufac-turing cities east of Prato, have banded together with the UIP in a new organi-zation that, starting in 2016, will repre-sent all of them.

According to the UIP, Prato cur-rently employs more than 34,700 people in its textile and apparel in-dustries. Data from ISTAT, the Italian statistics agency, showed that in 2013 the city’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, compared to 12.2 percent for Italy as a whole.

If the Italians and Chinese “can truly integrate [their] two quasi-parallel districts, if we can structure a supply chain that goes from thread production to cloth to garments, we will have the world’s greatest district,” Cavicchi said.

Solving the sweatshop crisis in the Prato region requires education and dialogue between the city and Italian and Chinese factory owners. By Cynthia Martens

Mayor Matteo Biffoni

Andrea Cavicchi

Santa Maria delle Carceri Square in Prato, Italy.

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CIAO, BRACCIALINI

In order to expand its global footprint, Braccialini has reached a distribution

agreement with LRPNY (Luxury Retail Partners New York). As a result, all brands

in the Braccialini luxury accessories house will be introduced to North America

at the EDIT Show, September 14—16. Taking place in NYC, the Spring 2015

collections of Braccialini, Gherardini, Francesco Biasia and Amazonlife will be

shown to buyers and brands.

The fi rst step in its global expansion will be to reintroduce the Francesco

Biasia and Braccialini brands in the American

wholesale markets, and to introduce—for the

fi rst time ever—the heritage brand, Gherardini.

During the next two years, Braccialini will

support its wholesale operations with the

opening of new free standing retail stores in

New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Both

retail development and management takeover

of the current Braccialini store in Miami (at

Aventura Mall) will be managed by LRPNY.

A DV E R T I S E M E N T

BRACCIALINI

Talent, pure amusement, glittering colors, precious

materials, and a good dose of fantasy are the

characteristics of a Braccialini handbag. Founded

in 1954 by Roberto and Carla Braccialini, the brand

strives to inject passion, charisma and playfulness

into their pieces. The uniqueness of Braccialini

handbags combined with Made in Italy artesian

workmanship has allowed for the company’s rapid

worldwide expansion.

GHERARDINI

The maison Gherardini is the oldest Italian

accessories label. Since 1885, Gherardini has been

creating its pieces, making it one of the most

prestigious heritage brands in Europe. Through

its 129 years and numerous collections, the brand

has evolved through various decades and styles,

but has always stayed true to its roots by

handcra� ing the fi nest leather goods, bags, wallets,

belts and accessories.

FRANCESCO BIASIA

Francesco Biasia embodies the ingenuity and

innovative creativity that distinguishes Italian

cra� smanship. Created for the modern woman

who desires a glamorous and functional handbag,

Biasia pieces follow current fashion trends without

neglecting the value of high quality materials.

The Italian accessories house celebrates its 60th

anniversary by reintroducing its brands to North America

THE UNIVERSAL EXPO returns to Milan next year, from May 1 to Oct. 31, after al-most a century, and the city is in a frenzy of activity prepping and polishing up.

Restoration work on Milan’s sto-ried shopping arcade Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II kicked off in March, fi-nanced by Versace, Prada and Feltrinelli for a total cost of 3 million euros, or $4 million at current exchange.

Giorgio Armani is financing the work to restore a former Nestlé factory that will host a permanent exhibition of his creations and drawings. In addition, the center, which will be included in Milan’s museum network, will house a series of initiatives linked with fashion and design. Its focus will be on the pro-motion of works by new designers and will offer learning spaces, including classes and a library — all to be readied in time for the expo.

Likewise, Fondazione Prada is ex-pected to unveil its museum next year to coincide with the event.

“Made in Italy” production is intrin-sically tied to the expo, which will span more than 1.5 million square feet and be dedicated to its theme, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.”

According to the Web site italia.it, an estimated 29 million tourists will come to the country — for a daily average of 160,000 visitors for the six months of the exhibition and 7,000 events — and 141 countries are forecast to participate.

“There is anticipation and expecta-tion around the expo. It’s a great win-dow onto the world, as people will seek the ‘Made in Italy’ experience,” said Massimo De Maria, vice president of the Associazione Maestro Martino (Milano Gourmet Experience).

The association, headed by renowned chef Carlo Cracco, is promoting a proj-ect called “Good Food in Good Fashion” during Milan Fashion Week, to be held at eight five-star luxury hotels, includ-ing the Four Seasons, the Principe and the Bulgari. The purpose of the Milano Gourmet Experience is to promote Lombardy and “Made in Italy” food ex-cellence. The association is supported by Expo 2015 and the Lombardy region.

De Maria noted how food, fashion and design all contribute to be an ex-pression of Milan.

The relation between arts and food will be analyzed at Milan’s Triennale museum during a multisensorial exhibi-

tion, aptly called “Arts & Foods”; curated by Fondazione Prada director Germano Celant, it will run from April 10 to Nov. 1, 2015. At more than 75,600 square feet, “Arts & Foods” will focus on different expressions that, since 1851 — when the first expo was held in London — re-volved around food, nutrition and con-viviality, with works by artists, filmmak-ers, writers, musicians, photographers and designers from the impressionist period to Pop Art to the present day.

“‘Arts & Foods’ engages all media and languages, from paintings to sculp-ture, from videos to installations, pho-tography and advertisement, from de-sign to architecture, finance, music and literature,” said Celant.

Jane Reeve, chief executive officer of Italy’s Chamber of Fashion, noted that “fashion is one of the most important calling cards for Italy overall, and there-fore there is no doubt that it must play its part during a global event as presti-gious as Expo 2015.”

However, she underscored that the strategy is “to reveal a different side of the fashion world beyond the tradi-tional catwalk and presentation of the seasons’ latest designs.”

WWD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

SECTION II

WWD MADE IN ITALY

22

Expo CenterMilan gets ready for its international showcase. By Luisa Zargani

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WWD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

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Many of the members of the associa-tion, she continued, “have hidden trea-sures such as historical archives, art collections, memorabilia that bring to life the personalities and families be-hind the brands that have contributed to making Italian fashion what it is today. Our objective is to create an ongoing series of events throughout the Expo calendar, which will allow the many for-eign visitors expected from all over the world to experience the Italian fashion world in an alternate way.”

Armando Branchini, vice chair-man of Fondazione Altagamma, Italy’s luxury goods association, and deputy chairman of Milan-based consultancy InterCorporate, concurred with Reeve. He defined the event as “an extraordi-nary catalyst and a trigger of possibilities to enrich the city of Milan with opportu-nities that will last beyond the event.”

Branchini highlighted the Expo’s “strong component of culture and enter-tainment” that will be able to free up proj-ects that had been stalled for decades.

Paul Smith joined the ranks of the ex-po’s ambassadors carrying the message of the event, with the likes of architect Massimiliano Fuksas and Elio Fiorucci.

“Expo in one word? Exciting, in-novative, creative. Three for the price of one,” Smith is quoted on the Expo Web site. “I think ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’ is a great theme, cer-tainly some of the previous themes were important, but I think the Expo next year is perfect. When you think of Italy, the first things that come to mind are the hospitality of its people and its very good food. I think that here, people work for a living, while in my country they live to work. There is a great difference. [Italy’s] is a very positive attitude.”

The 2015 Expo Gate in Piazza Castello in Milan.

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