The Tuscan fashion industry has lost 40% of orders

In recent months, following the Covid-19 pandemic, many brands and designers have announced a revolution in their production rates, often giving up pre-collections and limiting themselves to the creation of two lines a year. A choice that, from the point of view of sustainability and design, is absolutely correct but whose consequences are heavy on the Tuscan fashion industry, a 15 billion euro business, now grown to adapt precisely to those rhythms and that has seen orders collapse by 40%. With the main risk, for suppliers, that brands, in the urgency of saving their seasonal collections, will take their orders elsewhere. Azzurra Morelli, owner of the clothing company PelleModa of Empoli and vice president of Confindustria Florence, one of the main suppliers of the big fashion brands, with a turnover of 46 million annually, explained to Il Sole 24Ore:

«If brands decide to make two lines a year, more sustainable on both the environmental and human resources fronts, the impact on a supply chain used to produce four collections a year plus six "flash" will be very strong. This adds uncertainty to an already very negative period».

In fact, the forecast for 2020 shows a decline in revenues of between 30% and 40%. The decline in orders began with the sharp drop in exports, which, for example, in the case of shoes and bags fell by 23%. A contraction that preceded the absolute stoppage imposed by the lockdown, throwing the entire sector into crisis. In fact, the companies that have remained open at a reduced pace in recent months have completed orders for FW21 collections, brands and subcontracts have stock of garments that have never arrived in stores and are waiting to place new orders, whose delivery deadlines, however, will be much faster than in the past, forcing companies to stay open even in August. A type of economic damage whose effects will spread throughout the rest of 2021.