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Italy needs to fight an invasion of counterfeit clothing
and change its tax and export laws to protect its textile
industry. That’s the view of Pietro Ciancanerla, a
Cagli clothing manufacturer.
He said two main problems threaten the future of the Italian
clothing manufacturing business: 1) the invasion of counterfeit
clothing flooding the market and 2) competition with other
countries.
For instance, the Naples area is notorious for producing
counterfeit clothing. Look-alike items carry brand labels,though
the manufacturer who controls the label did not make them.
These clothes cost considerably less than the originals and
undercut their value, Ciancanerla said.
Additionally, Italy has high export taxes so clothes manufactured
in Italy are less competitive in the global market. China,
Romania, and Bulgaria are countries with low export taxes
to Italy, and their production costs are much lower. Ciancanerla
says the Italian government ought to review the laws regarding
taxes for importing and exporting so manufacturers can compete
with these countries.
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Ciancanerla and his wife own Capi Italiani in Cagli. Capi
Italiani simply translates as “Italian clothing.”
Capi Italiani employs about 400 people indirectly, many of
whom work as his subcontractors. The subcontractors specialize
in tasks such as cutting, sewing or ironing.
Their labs are located in Cagli, neighboring cities and regions
like Umbria, Perugia and Arezzo. Each day Capi Italiani sends
work to about 20 separate specialized facilities to collectively
produce an item. A garment may be cut out in one place, stitched
in another, and pressed in yet another.
Cagli has been connected with textiles for over 30 years.
Town workers are skilled in sewing, ironing, cutting, printing
and embroidering.
In 1992, Ciancanerla and his wife began producing handcrafted
items for companies like Dolce Gabbana and Figura Mista. At
first they produced garments made exclusively of jersey.
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Prior to the 1990s a few manufacturers dictated the Italian
market. But the explosion of the market in the mid 1990s broke
the hold on the market, and soon hundreds of manufacturers
were active. Pietro Ciancanerla and his wife realized they
could do more, and the business grew from a national to an
international business. Now they are involved in manufacturing
the pants, shirts, skirts and sweaters found in high-end fashion
stores.
Ciancanerla said that even though there are equal numbers
of women and men, manufacturers are producing 90 percent for
women and 10 percent for men. Ciancanerla figures men on average
purchase in a year a quarter of the number of items women
do.
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These days designers like Sandy Dalal send designs, templates,
and fabric for Capi Italiani to work with. Generally, articles of
clothing begin as miniature drawings before being transformed to
the finished merchandise. Finished clothing is shipped directly
to the stores, with the exception of the Sandy Dalal brand, which
is personally distributed in New York.
According to the Fashion India website, Sandy Dalal retails his
label in “such stores as Nieman Marcus and Barney’s
in New York and other countries like China, Japan, and Hong Kong”
(www.fashionindia.net).
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