Camera della Moda responds to article exposing Italian garment workers

After the New York Times published an article exposing the plight of garment workers in Italy, the Italian Camera della Moda has responded, claiming that the chamber of Italian commerce is working to improve the supply chain throughout its country, making it more fair and humane.

The New York Times article, entitled “Inside Italy’s Shadow Economy,” sheds light on garment workers in the western country earning one euro per meter of fabric stitched while constructing luxury garments that retail between 900 and 2,340 dollars. The worker interviewed shared with the newspaper that the most she had earned from a single garment was 24 euros. The article points out that the label “Made in Italy” is typical connotated with sophistication in craftsmanship, yet cases such as the one described in the article would imply that the Italian luxury industry is comprised of low-paid female workers like those of the fast-fashion supply chain.

The official statement from the Camera della Moda reads: “The Italian supply chain has been under attack for a long time. CNMI and its members are committed to working toward making the Italian supply chain resilient, fair and humane on every front. It is a complex process and it takes time; there are no easy solutions, but we are working together through our established Working Group on Social Sustainability and have already achieved substantive gains. We continue to implement solutions using our evidence-base and by working collaboratively.”

The statement suggests that the New York Times article had been using statistics from 1973. However, the article included data that from the Italian National Institute of Statistics that reported on numbers homeworkers in both 2015 and 2017, which stated that there were 3.7 million workers without contracts in Italy.

“The latest statistic in fact shows that in Italy the number of irregular workers has dropped by 16 percent from 2010 to 2015,” the statement read. “Out of all sectors that have sought to tackle irregular labor, the luxury fashion sector in Italy has posted the best results.”