Confindustria Moda and trade unions unite to support the fashion industry
Sergio Tamborini, president of Confindustria Moda Federazione Tessile e Moda, spoke at Il Sole 24 Ore’s Luxury Summit following the signing of the 2024–2027 National Collective Labour Agreement, on May 6. His remarks were an admission of systemic failure—and a call to arms.
The crisis: “We are in the fourth negative semester”
“We are in the fourth consecutive negative semester—not just in textiles and apparel, but across the fashion sector, including leather goods, which are under intense pressure.”
Tamborini didn’t mince words: The textile, apparel, and leather goods sectors are under severe pressure, with no relief in sight. Yet the real issue isn’t just cyclical decline—it’s structural neglect.
The missing player: Politics
Tamborini emphasised that the agreement wasn’t an adversarial negotiation: “We did not sign this contract from opposite sides of the table. For the first time, employers and unions stood together, because a fundamental player is missing — it is politics.”
Tamborini added: “The country lacks an industrial policy, and not only for this sector, there are also transversal issues such as energy.”
“We have fully realised that politics is not able to manage this thing because it has not understood this sector, perhaps because it has spoken too softly for too long, due to its fragmented structure, given that it did not have leading companies that spoke for the entire sector like Fiat for the automotive sector.”
Italy’s fashion sector has no Fiat-like champion to demand attention. The result? A government that has not understood this sector, leaving it vulnerable to energy crises, supply chain collapses, and global competition.
The warning: “We risk total darkness”
Tamborini referenced a recent blackout in Spain as a metaphor for systemic collapse. When critical links fail, the entire system goes dark. Italian fashion supply chain—fragmented and undervalued—faces the same fate.
“As we saw with the blackout in Spain, with these interconnected networks, when moments of connection are lost then there is total darkness and we are risking a similar condition because if we lose pieces of the supply chain, then we risk losing the entire supply chain.”
The plan: Unions as unlikely allies
With politics absent, Tamborini announced an unprecedented alliance: Confindustria Moda and unions will draft their own industrial policy to “present to the government.” A strategic rebellion—or simply filling a political void?
Final thoughts: The irony of “Made in Italy”
Tamborini expressed palpable frustration that while Italy’s leaders applaud fashion weeks, they ignore the industry’s backbone. The irony? A sector that fuels national pride survives despite politics, not because of it.
“It is nice to go to the fashion shows. But then you have to realise that 600,000 people are employed in a sector that is the country’s second-largest manufacturing base. It generates 60% of exports and €30 billion in trade balance. We haven’t been able to say this—but they haven’t understood it either.”
Indeed. When the lights go out on manufacturing, even the brightest catwalks fade to black.
Question for readers: Can Italian fashion outlast its government’s indifference? Or will it take a total collapse to force change?