Italian made, 100% cotton - gets my vote.  I'm too long in the tooth to wear it, but it looks fine for the younger guy.

Last edited by TheWeejun (2010-07-15 01:42:49)

Ok here's the post again with the caveat that it's not really relevant to Three Stroke!

(BTW RR&P - the same things, occupation of soveriegn territory, human rights, racism, etc, are the things that made the British Empire the manufacturing centre of the world too, in its day. Without near slave labour in the far east and india those venerable mills up north would not have the Hovis Ad nostalgia we all feel for them. We are just seeing a new master on the rise. Same old same old)

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They can easily stick to it in Italy, ILG.

The reasons?

1. Italians spend money on clothes (and pay good prices for good clothes)
2. Italians are fairly nationalistic and want to see Made in Italy - most Brits don't know and don't care
3. There are literally thousands of independent retailers in suburbs and small towns as well as city centres across Italy that sell quality clothing (compare that with the literal handful left in the UK)
4. Most importantly for a small manufacturer, Italian banks will factor their debts against invoices. This simply does not happen in the UK where banks will not lend money against orders except against those from blue chip (multiple) retailers and even then ONLY with guarantees from the manufacturer's directors. The banks here double dip so they have zero risk and charge huge fees for it.

In the UK most independent retailers expect a stock service to draw from (the cost of which is borne by the manufacturer -the shoe makers are classic examples of this folly and one of the reasons for so many bankruptcies) and then they don't pay for months. In Italy orders are taken at regional trade shoes or by local distributors for x number of y goods and that's it. No in stock service available.

In Italy, the system is also set up with distributors called 'plurimandatori' who will have local exclusivity to a groups of brands in their region.  If the retailer doesn't  pay for goods from brand A, then he loses access to brands, B, C, D etc. Therefore the system works pretty well and the banks are confident enough to lend against orders. This is what banks once did in the UK before they started making money only from financial instruments. It's also why we will never have a manufacturing industry in the UK again.

Of course even in Italy these small companies face competition from imports, however, unlike the UK the Italians have no problem whatsoever with ignoring certain EC laws with regard to anything not in the national interest. It was the extremely powerful Italian footwear industry that successfully lobbied Mandelson when EC Trade Commisioner to slap a 26% 'anti-dumping' duty on shoes made in China coming into the EC. Really this was an anti-competition tax because the Italians, like everyone else are scared of the high quality handwork coming out of some Chinese factories now. The idea that Made in China means crap quality is outdated now, as it was when I was a kid and Made in Japan was seen as inferior. Anyone who's seen what the Chinese are now capable of quality wise will understand this (Get Smart wrote about this before).

Anyway so much for the rant, but I do like to see these small Italian firms do well.

Last edited by TheWeejun (2010-07-15 01:54:05)

I once taught a kid whose father was at university with Gordon Brown when Brown was still relatively restrained as Chancellor.  He told me: 'You can't argue with economics'.

^ ha!

No, no... Trigema is not a Nazi brand, but it's Made In Germany... No outsourcing, and a certain quality control, no slave wages...