Unlike the hot production site of Dongguan Xingxiong and Xingang factory, Prada China headquarters - Prada Trading (Shanghai) Co., LTD., the relevant person in charge of the public relations department in a telephone interview with this newspaper flatly denied that there is a production line in China. "We don't have any production lines in China, and as you can see, almost all of our products are marked Made in Italy, with pure Italian craftsmanship and technology." However, according to FT staff writer EchoGu, who works in the fashion industry, Prada found a factory in China with the right technology for the first two years and made it there. Forced by the cheap image of "Made in China", their CEO suggested that they should abolish the origin label and change it to "Made by Prada".

in the Prada store in Xinguang Tiandi, Beijing, every shoe, every dress, every bag, without exception, is marked "Made in Italy." The idea of "Made by Prada" has not yet been implemented.

In response to our written question whether there is a processing agent in China, Prada China headquarters said that it must be confirmed by Milan to reply.

Prada's discretion is justified. The skilled artisans representing the pure Italian craft need 30 years of craftsmanship, and in these two factories in Dongguan, you can see most of the young people around 20 years old, and rarely see employees over 30 years old.

Their pay levels also vary widely. A banner that has long hung outside the Xingxiong shoe factory gate says it is hiring a large number of general workers, with salaries starting at 1,300 yuan a month. Of course, if they choose to work overtime, the pay can be considerable.

By one count, European garment workers earn an average of about $20 an hour and work fixed hours; Chinese workers, on the other hand, are paid very little, their labor costs are only 1/20 of Italy's, and they can often work overtime.

After the financial crisis, factories in Zhejiang and Guangdong obviously felt that customers were pushing down prices, and the number of orders did not decrease, but the unit price fell a lot, with an average price reduction of more than 30%. Zhang Ming said that the Xingxiong factory during the entire financial crisis, orders did not reduce but increased, of course, the price is cheaper.

In addition to OEM, the pace of Chinese manufacturing enterprises has slowly extended to the upstream design and brand operation links.

Large-scale processing plants have been transforming to research and development, such as Xingang International, Liantai, Esquel and so on have their own brands.

It is reported that Xingang International has more than 3,000 research and development personnel, and the annual research and development expenditure is close to one billion yuan. As long as the customer proposes a concept, the design team of Xingang International can design at least five styles in a short time, and can design more than 100,000 styles in a year.

The sign outside the Xingxiong factory shows that Xingxiong is also developing its own brand, named STEL-LALUNA, which is currently listed in the capital cities of the provinces in China and has 102 chain stores.

Honest brand

Ouyang Kun, head of the China representative office of the World Luxury Association, told reporters that luxury brands have both bright and dark production in China.

The old Italian luxury brand Armani belongs to the "Ming" way. Gigi, head of Armani public relations department, told reporters in detail that Armani has many brand lines, of which GiorgioArmani is a pure Italian process and raw materials, and EmporioArmani is partly produced in China. The subsidiary brand Ar-maniExchange is fully authorized to be produced and operated by the partner merchants.

Gigi said that where the production is affixed to the label is the requirement, otherwise it can not pass the inspection of the Import and Export and Industry and Commerce Bureau, I believe that every brand can do this.

Zhejiang Hangzhou Shenghong Clothing Co., Ltd. is a well-known luxury goods foundry in the industry. The company has been engaged in the OEM production of luxury brands since 1999, mainly producing ArmaniJeans and ArmaniExchange series under Armani. And ArmaniCollezioni, one of the brand's most upscale ready-to-wear collections.

Zheng, director of Shenghong Clothing, told reporters that the Armani made by its factory is a finished product, and sometimes more orders will be contracted to the cooperative enterprises below. "In fact, foreign brands have already recognized the technology of Chinese factories," Zheng said proudly.

But Mr. Zheng is coy about how to train workers to be as skilled as luxury brands require, saying only that the factory hires certain craft workers.

Mr. Zheng, the factory manager, has been picking up more orders lately, he said, as luxury brands have controlled costs since the financial crisis. He said more orders have been placed by sophisticated and experienced factories, while smaller ones have declined.

In the EmporioArmani store in Beijing, the reporter did see that each piece of clothing was clearly marked with different places of origin in Chinese, "Origin: Italy", "Origin: Serbia", "Origin: Shenzhen, China" and so on.

Equally honest is the British national treasure luxury brand Burberry. The brand last year in the pursuit of economic benefits, despite the multiple resistance in the UK resolutely announced the move to China. Burberry has closed its main UK factory in the Rhonda Valley region of South Wales and will officially move production to Shenzhen in China's Guangdong province under a "globalisation" plan outlined in September last year.

Posted on 2018-12-10 15:58