“There is no industry without problems,” says Carlo Capasa, president of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI). “The perfect world unfortunately does not exist. So, we have to find solutions.”
I’m sitting with Capasa in the lounge at Milan Fashion Week’s emerging designer hub in Piazza Mercanti, a stone’s throw from the Duomo in the heart of the city. We’re taking a break from the shows to discuss the existential threat facing the ‘Made in Italy’ label — and by extension, the entire Italian fashion industry. Schedules are busy, and PRs float around nearby, but the interview is unhurried; this is not a subject Capasa wants to rush.
The problems he alludes to first came to light in January 2024, when a Milan court placed Italian brand Alviero Martini under temporary judicial administration due to allegations of worker exploitation by subcontractors in its supply chain. This was the starting point of a wider probe, which was later extended to include Armani (April 2024), Dior (June 2024), Valentino (May 2025) and Loro Piana (July 2025). (The orders imposed on Alviero Martini, Armani and Dior were lifted early, once the brands complied with the court’s measures, and all of the brands that have responded publicly to the probe have denied knowledge of any exploitation. In their responses to the findings — set out in full here — Loro Piana and Dior condemned the illegal practices and confirmed they had terminated their contracts with the suppliers. Armani and Valentino have publicly confirmed their commitments to improving supply chains.)
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The ongoing inquiry cast a shadow over Milan Fashion Week this season, starting from the opening breakfast last Wednesday, where it became a subject of debate with the journalists present. Alongside the intense pressure to preserve Made in Italy’s reputation is the very real need — and responsibility — to protect people in the supply chain.
Capasa’s job is therefore a tough one. He has to walk a thin tightrope between supporting and defending the industry, while actively condemning any form of exploitation or abuse, and discouraging the scapegoating of migrant communities (the investigations repeatedly mention Chinese-owned factories or workshops located in Italy, which are being used as subcontractors).
So, while he says only a small proportion of Italy’s production — thought to be around 2 to 3 per cent — is made by “irregular” workers (those hired without contracts, who often face poor working and living conditions, and low pay), he is careful to acknowledge the seriousness of the issue. He emphasises the need to improve standards and controls not just to protect the brands, but also the people that are potentially being subjected to violations of their basic human rights, wherever they are from.
“In a sense, what happened [with the supply chain probe] was good, because we’ve discovered some areas that we were not aware of,” says Capasa. “And we have understood that we need more precise regulations to help those migrants that arrive in Italy find good working conditions.”
In June, the prefecture of Milan, which has been leading the supply chain investigation, proposed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding for the Legality of Procurement Contracts in the Fashion Production Chains’, which aims to improve working conditions and combat exploitation, tax and social security evasion throughout Italy’s fashion supply chain. However, Capasa — among others — says a voluntary agreement is not enough. Instead, the CNMI is working with the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy to develop a legally binding, third-party certification system to ensure compliance with labour and ethical standards.
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It won’t be easy to apply to a fragmented industry, but he believes Italy can turn the current crisis into a positive outcome, eventually becoming a leader in supply chain transparency. “This for me is a win from something that was not so good,” he says. “We will be probably the first to have a supply chain that is completely monitored in terms of workers. And believe me, while we’re talking about Italy today, this [illegal subcontracting] is happening everywhere in the world.”
The transparency challenge
The question, though, is why is it happening in Italy, which has a long and proud history of making high-quality, expensive clothes. Some 70 per cent of luxury fashion sold around the world is made in Italy, according to the CNMI. “Made in Italy represents a very unique approach to making fashion,” says Capasa. “Other countries are very good at satisfying needs, at a much cheaper price. But here, what we are good at is creating dreams.”
According to Capasa, this approach is rooted in the country’s heritage of valuing artisans over industrial processes, and investing in preserving their know-how. But what the investigations have laid bare is the gap between the dream and the reality of Italian fashion. In fact, some Italian factories operate on a huge industrial scale, with additional facilities in other countries fulfilling up to 90 per cent of their orders. Within Italy, it is becoming harder to attract young talent and keep traditional luxury crafts alive, as fewer young people view fashion production as a desirable career path. Meanwhile, many smaller and more artisanal suppliers are shutting their doors, weighed down by the administrative burden of European regulations and unable to keep up with the pace of innovation in countries like China.
The picture painted by the Italian authorities throughout their investigations only deepens this divide. According to the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato), issues identified at some of the subcontractor facilities used by a supplier of Giorgio Armani included the removal of safety devices to facilitate faster work, unsanitary living arrangements, and the presence of undocumented or unregistered migrant workers. (In a statement, Armani said that it was disappointed by the ruling against it and that it has “always operated with the utmost fairness and transparency toward consumers, the market and stakeholders”.)
Capasa says it’s a misconception that luxury brands are squeezing their suppliers, resulting in the need to subcontract to cut costs. Most of the primary suppliers in Italy make a “good” living, he insists. Instead, Capasa says, subcontracting is more often a tool to cope with fluctuations in demand. “Fashion is difficult, it’s not always the same volume of production,” he explains. “There may be some cases where somebody wants to save money, but in general, [they use subcontractors] to be flexible.”
Still, there’s a clear power imbalance at play, if suppliers feel they have to outsource to factories with below-par conditions, rather than rejecting orders. While the practice of subcontracting isn’t necessarily a problem, the lack of visibility brands appear to have of who their contractors are outsourcing to, is.
Capasa says transparency is a huge challenge: “You give a job to the contractor, and this contractor sometimes finds one or two subcontractors, and sometimes even the subcontractor finds a sub-subcontractor. For a brand, it’s nearly impossible to control 100 per cent this chain, because if you have 4,000 suppliers and those suppliers each have [at least one] subcontractor, you’re looking at 8,000, 9,000 suppliers. It’s very difficult. The brands do [audits], but it’s limited. There could always be one you don’t find.”
Grappling with a new reality
An underlying tension is that the factories found to have poor working conditions have typically been migrant owned, often by those from China. There are tens of thousands of Chinese garment workers employed in the Prato textile district alone, often keeping within their own communities. This has been largely left out of the Made in Italy narrative. As a result, when the probe into luxury supply chains began, some consumers were surprised and took to social media to complain that their Made in Italy products were in fact made by Chinese manufacturers, stoking an anti-Chinese sentiment.
The implication that Chinese-owned factories may not have the same standards as Italian factories has somewhat fuelled the flames, overlooking that it is the system at fault and not the existence of migrant workers. Capasa says there have been times when the industry has not come across as it should. “I have to admit, we are not so strong sometimes in our communication,” he says.
That said, Capasa maintains that better integration of migrant communities would help. “We don’t believe that this is a Chinese problem,” he continues. “What they [the authorities] found was this Chinese community [in Italy] that is very closed, with their own rules. What we want to do is make sure that — if you arrive here from any country around the world — when you are in Italy, you have the same treatment.”
Italy is grappling with the reality of the world we are living in, he says. Some 300,000 people migrate to Italy per year. “We have to create the right platform for those people to be part of something. Because if we leave them in the ghettos, what do we expect back? So let’s work at making them part of the community,” he explains. “We have to help them to be integrated in the system. If they choose to come here, they have to have the same treatment [as Italians] and this is what fashion should offer. But as you can understand, when [immigration] happens, it’s not easy to control immediately. That’s why we need a law, to bring everyone to the same level.”
Can Italy lead the way forward?
Capasa says Italy now has an opportunity to lead the way on protecting workers in the supply chain.
Generally, Capasa would like to see a reduced reliance on subcontracting. “I think that in the medium to long run, there should not be many subcontractors. Subcontractors would be limited to some moment of specific production — like if you need an embroiderer, or when you make shoes and you need somebody to make the heels,” he says. “In some cases, you need to subcontract; but in other cases — when it’s just to be more flexible or whatever — you need to enforce the contractors [to do the work in-house].”
One solution is to tackle the fragmentation of the supply chain. There are approximately 600,000 people working in fashion manufacturing in Italy, and nearly 60,000 companies, Capasa says. That means many of them are small with limited capacity.
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There are two ways to approach this, he says. The first is to support the individual suppliers to grow. But it is perhaps easier to create networks that link smaller suppliers together, to streamline supply chain monitoring, and there are a few groups already doing this, such as Gruppo Florence. Capasa adds that brands have a vital role to play in supporting their suppliers. He points to the movement towards verticalisation as evidence that this is a top priority, with brands increasingly acquiring or investing a stake in their suppliers, to help provide stability (and increase their visibility and control).
Capasa’s main focus is on supporting the introduction of legislation to ensure compliance with labour and ethical standards across the Italian fashion supply chain. The new law would require suppliers to disclose how many hours their employees work, how much they are paid and how many products they make, among other things. “There’s a long checklist that they will have to present,” says Capasa. “If they don’t do it, they don’t get a stamp. And if they don’t get a stamp, it’s very difficult for them to work.” Certification will be carried out by an independent party nominated by the government. Further details on the process, timeline and cost are to come; Capasa says an announcement is expected in November.
The data collection sounds like a big ask for suppliers already facing the administrative burden of multiple audits. But Capasa argues that it will actually streamline the process: “We are trying to work all together to make the one united checklist for suppliers. Instead of having all the brands [implement a different] checklist of elements, there will be one checklist. So suppliers will have less documents to prepare and they will have more time to work on the products.“
Capasa believes the law could offer a base for new European legislation. “Once we can say that this law works — and obviously we still have to make the law and we have to hope that the law arrives at the end as we think it should be, and then we have to test it — I think this is a good place for a European response to the problem,” he says.
As we wrap up, I ask Capasa about the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards, which took place the evening after our conversation. There, the late Giorgio Armani’s contribution to fashion was honoured with a special award, alongside nine accolades for other brands and organisations. Is it the best time for Italy to be patting itself on the back about sustainability?
“Some people questioned whether this was the right time for the awards, when we are talking about this problem in the supply chain,” Capasa admits. “But I think this is the best moment, because this is exactly what we are standing up for. We are not here to say we are perfect. We are here to solve the problem.”
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