MILAN — The brisk rebound fashion has experienced in the aftermath of the pandemic’s gloomiest seasons is not entirely putting the supply chain in a safe place.
The ongoing volatile economy and geopolitical instability are closely monitored, especially by small- and medium-sized textile makers and manufacturers, which constitute the backbone of Italy’s internationally acclaimed fashion pipeline.
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A range of initiatives in the country are coming to the rescue, aiming to provide these companies with opportunities to keep their businesses steadily growing, promoting matchmaking between established or up-and-coming brands and the local supply chain, as well as compensating for the marketing prowess these companies often lack.
Entrepreneur David Clementoni has been supporting SMEs since 2015, way before the pandemic would disrupt business. Under the moniker Italian Artisan, he has developed a platform recruiting firms sized between four and 100 employees, third-party manufacturers spread across 30 out of 54 of Italy’s fashion manufacturing hubs, and facilitating their engagement with international fashion brands and retailers.
“When we launched it, we didn’t have a tech platform-enabled service and the project was intended to allow up-and-coming and start-up brands [to] develop their collections in Italy,” the entrepreneur said.
The platform was introduced in its current version in 2019 and has amassed around 700 manufacturing firms, a growing number Clementoni said, as he and his team keep scouting for players to add, and more join via word of mouth, provided they can show manufacturing, business and financial stability.
Italian Artisan’s goals have evolved as more brands, established and larger in size, have joined the platform aiming to re-shore production from abroad to leverage the valuable Made in Italy label, which oftentimes guarantees a premium and luxury positioning, and to develop brand extensions in the fashion arena. As of June, the platform counted 10,000 registered brands.
“More than matchmaking, our goal is to ensure business is effectively and efficiently carried out. We’re more facilitators than we are intermediaries,” Clementoni said, explaining the platform’s business model is based on royalties from produced goods and add-on services Italian Artisan provides.
Similarly, Italy’s association of leather goods manufacturer Assopellettieri has been fine-tuning its Mipel Lab format, developed in tandem with tanning industry trade show Lineapelle to favor business relationships between manufacturing firms and fashion players that do not already produce in Italy.