Fashion in Italy is a serious matter. Beyond journalism show, trends as fleeting as inexplicable, presumed and questionable influencers and everything that makes it seem almost a circus out of the world from which the treatment of sufficiency and detachment that has always reserved the cultural elite, fashion it is first and foremost industry and among the most solid and decisive for the economic fate of our country, second only to metallurgical activities as a manufacturing sector.
Just take a look at the data released these days at the end of the year by Cribis, a Crif Group company specialized in business information, to realize how, despite the crisis, the textile industry remains one of the leading Italian companies in terms of quality, style and innovation .
The Italian fashion industry is one of the pillars of the national economy with over 78 billion euros in turnover, of which about 51 billion in exports.
The supply chain is divided into the fibers sector (preparation and spinning of fibers, natural and artificial), textile sector (processing and processing of fibers), clothing sector (packaging of fabrics) and distribution (marketing to private and industrial customers). Although, over the years, the Italian textile industry has been involved in a progressive reduction of its turnover, it has managed to maintain a leadership role in the sector at European level thanks to the tradition of production and the high specialization along the whole supply chain. And it is a positive figure for Italy that enters in 2019 thanks to its age-old tradition in this field which, despite the blows, does not waver, rather it re-launches with strength and determination, being in fact the second manufacturing sector in Italy after metallurgical activities . So fundamental to the fate of our economy.
With about 500 thousand employees, the whole fashion system has about 82 thousand active companies, of which 25% in leather goods, 56% in clothing and 19% in textiles. And the textile industry, the pride and always the great pride of Made in Italy, plays a primary role for the entire supply chain: in fact, the sector accounts for 26.7% of the value of fashion production. Approximately 15,500 companies are active in the textile sector, concentrated mainly in the areas of Central and North-East where industrial districts of global importance are developed, such as that of Biella specialized in the production of fabrics and yarns, Prato specialized in the production of yarns and fabrics wool for clothing, and finally the Verona district with a large number of small businesses specialized at every level of the supply chain. The most widespread production is the wool (41.4%), followed by knitted and cotton fabrics, all traditional products of the Italian textile industry to be proud of and to be widely supported in 2019 that awaits us.
