Finland Times

 

Make sure that the brand you are buying matches with the idea of beauty you dream of is what an investigative report broadcast recently on Italian state television Rai has encouraged lovers of the Made in Italy to do.

     

Miuccia Prada, Giorgio Armani, Diego Della Valle and Dolce & Gabbana are among the Italian entrepreneurs that U.S. Forbes magazine has mentioned among the richest in the world, Milena Gabanelli, head of Report, a respected investigative program in Italy, noted.

     

"All of them produce part or nearly the totality of their items out of Italy, as they think that the brand, not where it is made, is important," she explained. Nevertheless, they would never have become what they are without the power of the Made in Italy behind their names, Gabanelli added.

     

TAILORED IN EASTERN EUROPE

   

Journalists of Report travelled to Eastern Europe to provide documentary evidence on the choices of some fashion brands that move the production in countries where workers are underpaid in order to save a handful of euros on products sold at very high prices in the boutiques.

     

"With an additional 20-30 euros, you also produce it (the jacket) in Italy. I mean they could easily have their products made in Italy ... they go round the world instead," a factory owner in Romania, where many Italian fashion items are tailored for less than 50 euros each, told Report.

     

Prada was among the brands which were in production during Report's visit to a factory in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova not recognized by the United Nations, where the tailoring cost is about 30 euros for a jacket sold in retail stores at 1,950 euros.

     

The factory's director told Report that 80 percent of the production was for Italian brands.

   

"In 2006-2007 we started production in southern Italy, and gradually we arrived to count some 20 companies working for us," Giuseppe Iorio, former production head at Moncler, told Report.

   

 "After about two years, production was completely shifted abroad, partly in Transnistria," he said.

     

In a letter sent to the program, Iorio denounced the dirty job of which he used to be part "with the only aim to increase profits dramatically" and which provoked "the death of hundred artisanal workshops in Italy."

     

The program interviewed owners of small businesses in southern Italy who said they were forced to dismiss many workers after losing contracts to supply Moncler.

     

COSTLY ITEMS OF DUBIOUS QUALITY

     

A worker in Romania said that Moncler, a French brand bought out by Italian entrepreneur Remo Ruffini in 2003, was not using the best feathers, which producers in Hungary said would cost 25 euros per jacket at most. "Moncler sends us gross things ... feathers are very dirty," she told Report.

     

Hungary is a top producer of feathers destined to European luxury brands, and for the first time a public television succeeded in providing documentary evidence of the illegal live-plucking practiced on live geese, Report noted.

     

The program showed that the malpractice is common in the many breeding farms of the country, despite the fact that animal rights groups have repeatedly denounced to European competent authorities the agony suffered by geese for being plucked alive many times during their short lives.

     

Moncler, whose shares plunged nearly 5 percent on the Milan stock exchange earlier this week after the report was broadcast, denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement that it only buys down from certified producers.

     

"There is no link whatsoever with the strong images broadcast relating to breeders, suppliers and farms that act in an improper and illegal way," the statement said adding that down suppliers were currently located in Italy, France and North America.

     

Moncler also denied allegations that retail prices were too high compared to production costs and gave lawyers a mandate to protect its rights. "If Moncler wants to take us to court, we are not afraid, we will produce our proofs," Gabanelli hit back.

     

AN ETHICAL MODEL OF BUSINESS

     

Among the names cited by Forbes, there is another one, Brunello Cucinelli, an Italian maker of luxury cashmere apparel, who distinguishes himself from the other entrepreneurs for having chosen to produce his items entirely in Italy, Gabanelli highlighted.

     

"When we listed (on the Milan exchange), I told all my shareholders: I would like you to believe in the dignity of profit. I would like to make profit as we have always done respecting human dignity," Cucinelli said in an interview with Report.

     

According to Forbes, Cucinelli has a worth of 1.3 billion euros. "Our profits are normal, they are not exaggerate. We make about 9 percent of net margins per year and I think this is healthy for a healthy company," the entrepreneur went on saying.

     

There are a restaurant, a theater and a school in Cucinelli's complex, which is located near Perugia, a city in central Italy. Employees are paid 20 percent more than the national average, they are compelled to take lunch break and are not allowed to work after 5:30 p.m. local time (0330 GMT).

     

Cucinelli was born from a family of farmers. "I am rich ... yes," he told Gabanelli. Report interviewed some of the students at his school. They said they are happy about their choice and dream of becoming high-level artisans to continue the tradition of the Made in Italy. (1 euro = 1.23 U.S. dollars)