The London Lounge

For those of you who have access to Google, type in The New York Times and scroll down the page until you find the heading, Chinese Remake the 'Made in Italy' Fashion Label. The article appeared in the Monday, 13 September 2010, issue of the paper. If you thought Italy was one of the last bastions of beautifully made cloth, bespoke tailoring and handmade shoes, you're in for quite a shock. It seems Prato
in Tuscany, is being overrun with illegal Chinese workers. Taxes are being avoided, there is money laundering, prostitution and drugs involved as well as price goughing, dismal living conditions for the
slave labor employed, and, in true Italian buffo tradition, an inept police department unwilling to roundup
the bad guys. Read the article!

JMB

A chilling dramatization of Chinese-Italian tension in the haute couture / pronto moda industries, under the shadow of the Camorra, is presented in one segment of the 2008 film "Gomorra" (in English, "Gomorrah"). This is further south than Prato, but many of the underlying issues are similar.