Austerity fashions in Italy

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33455, 9 February 1974, Page 6

Austerity fashions in Italy

i.X.Z.r.I .-Rculcr—Copyright) ROME, February 8. Whispers of austerity have floated on to the Italian fashion scene.

The apparent inevitability of higher prices and the problem of getting raw materials point to this possibility. To emphasise that international problems can have their effect on the world of , haute couture, one fashion .page headline said: “Forthj coming: bicycle fashions for the energy crisis.” The Italian textile and apparel industry, with a total I work force of more than ■1,000,000, has just recovered from a recession that lasted from 1969 to 197 L Hundreds of marginal firms collapsed ; while for a time many large -textile plants were working (at half capacity. During 1973 the fashion industry bounced back. Textile plants, including those which manufacture synthetic fibres utilising petroleum products, are working at full capacity. PRICE RISES So far the energy crisis 'has not slowed down Italian .textile production, but (higher prices for petroleum (products, combined with increased labour costs and international price rises for natural fibres, cannot help (but mean higher* prices passed on to the consumer. The situation in Italy is: Labour: In 490 textile and apparel factories, labour contracts will expire in the coming year. New contracts will mean higher earnings for the 250,000 workers involved. (Natural fibres: Wool fibre prices rose on the averi age by 50 per cent in nine months last year while cotton prices rose by 80 to 90 per cent. (Chemical fibres: Prices rose i from 70 to 80 per cent I between January and October last year. Difficulty in obtaining raw

t materials was causing grow-| ■ ing concern in the textile > | industry, both in Italy and i abroad. "We are not seriously -I worried yet, however.” said * Dr Amos Ciabattoni, head of' f the Government’s fashioni agency, the Ente Italiano) -1 Della Moda. who visited New! r I Zealand last year. "Fashion is obviously one! i of the industrial areas to! I suffer hardest should there! rbe a major international! II recession. I "But for the last 15 years! sjfashion has always been in a i precarious state — and; 8! always pulled through. We ’ i are used to crises,” Dr Cia- ] 'battoni said. I "If synthetic fabrics be- . come hard to find, cotton e should have a revival, while. - because of the high price of j - wool, woollen fabrics will t probably be mixed with artificial fibres,” he said. “Fashion has, in the past, s used everything from paper B to leather, from burlap to silk, f from blue denim to brocade. n Shortages and high prices in t . one area can even become tjia stimulus to fashion’s invent,riiveness.” p RAGS RECYCLED d Traces of . fashion’s attempts to deal with the first | hints of a crisis in the wings a can already be seen. ' Because of the high price n |of fine wool, the Italian indus- „! try has turned to importing n i woollen rags for “recycling.” e |While raw wool imports de- [ I dined, imports of rags rose '!by 9773 tons. e "An Italian fashion writer, ■ Paola Berti, wrote recently: II “Winter fashions from now r on will have a new sector — e biking fashions The energy M crisis and the limited use of e the automobile will give birth it to a new fashion, to be develd oped in consideration of what we already have in the closet: v austerity fashions, in short.”