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TEXTILE ACCESSORIES: 100% ITALIAN MADE, HIGH-END PRODUCTS WITH A TALENT FOR EXPORT
'Fashion Details Make the Difference'. This is the title of a recent publication sponsored by the Italian Ministry of International Trade and by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE). The book was presented in New York and Barcelona last July. The title could very well be the slogan for the Italian textile accessories industry, a niche sector reclaiming its specificity in light of important figures. In 2006 the sector invoiced 1,982 million euros, as a result of a slight increase in production (+0.6%) despite the difficult times for European textile producers.
Giorgio Giardini, President of TessiliVari, the Italian trade association for textile accessories' producers (www.tessilivari.it), warns however against interpreting the figures as a uniform industry trend. In fact TessiliVari is divided in three sub-sectors: textiles for fashion, for interior design and for technical uses. But even as products vary, the industry has one characteristic in common. "Our products are 100% Italian made, produced to be exported abroad and placed on the top to medium-top end of the market", explains Mr Giardini. "The industry is diversified and includes, for example, firms that produce textiles for curtains, ribbon makers and polyester yarn throwsters". In general, the firms that produce fashion accessories tend to focus on clothing, while those that produce fabric are more linked to the world of whole traders and to textiles for padding.
According to Mr Giardini in the last year the industry "showed a timid recovery except for tulles, where exports fell both in terms of volume and value. If we wanted to compile a list, you could say that fashion textiles were more dynamic compared to interior fabrics, which has suffered from a weak domestic demand", only partially compensated by exports: in 2006 the trade surplus for this sector has been equal to 25 million euros.
"We are exporting more", claims Giardini, who represents and industry that managed to change radically compared to the Seventies, when only 25-30% of turnovers came from abroad. Today that share is over half of the total (between 50% and 55%), and in the case of some firms rises to 70%. The industry has a global outlook, but European markets remain the main target. However, markets shares abroad are being defended and increased by putting ever more pressure on profits, which are squeezed by the Euro's strength and by the competition from many Asian countries.
Firms have adopted different exporting strategies. "Those that are specialised in interiors - the President of TessiliVari explains - do not have a direct distribution and retailing network, but they sell their products through agents (either direct salesmen or middlemen). Their relationship with their final consumer is an indirect one. Those that produce fabric accessories for the fashion industry, however, sell directly to the world's major designer houses".
In this respect, the export-supporting initiatives devised by TessiliVari with the support of the ICE and of the Italian government, which aimed at increasing Italian firms' participation to events abroad and of foreign delegations to trade fairs in Italy, as well as promoting sectorial agreements within the industry, have played a decisive role. "This does not mean - Mr Giardini admits - that some firms did not rise to the challenge on their own initiative. From the Seventies onwards there have been some 'pioneers' that explored international markets, starting from the US. That is to say: these days we try to avoid dispersing our energies in lone initiatives by acting in a concerted way, but the desire to expand beyond Italy's boarders has always been in our nature".
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