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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.

 

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.


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.

 

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).

 

 

 

 

 

for further information on Capi Italiani: capiitaliani@libero.it

 

 

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