Look, we’ve got nothing against China, a manufacturing phenomenon that produces quality, lead-free products every day of the year—but when a luxury item like, say, a Prada travel bag is stamped “made in China” even as a Prada spokesman insists it’s handmade in Italy, it seems more than a little dishonest.

How do the brands get away with this? Some hide the “Made in China” label in the bottom of an inside pocket or stamped black on black on the back side of a tiny logo flap. Some bypass the “provenance” laws requiring labels that tell where goods are produced by having 90 percent of the bag, sweater, suit or shoes made in China and then attaching the final bits — the handle, the buttons, the lifts — in Italy, thus earning a “Made in Italy” label. Or some simply replace the original label with one stating it was made in Western Europe.

Or how about when a luxury goods company illegally employees Chinese immigrants in Europe?

To please customers looking for the “Made in Italy” label, several luxury companies now have their goods made in Italy by illegal Chinese laborers. Today, the Tuscan town of Prato, just outside of Florence and long the center for leather-goods production for brands like Gucci and Prada, has the second-largest population of Chinese in Europe, after Paris. More than half of the 4,200 factories in Prato are owned by Chinese entrepreneurs, some of whom pay their Chinese workers as little as two Euros ($3) an hour.

“Made in China on the Sly” [New York Times via Metafilter]
(Photo: d’n’c)

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